How It Will End
by Milo F. Waters
Summary: Steven barely escaped his trial on Homeworld. Soon after he returns, he starts discovering more new abilities. Although that might be for the best for him and the Crystal Gems because Homeworld is NOT happy with his departure...
1. Prologue: Welcome Home

**Hello all you Steven Universe fanatics! Welcome to the beginning of "How It Will End", a story currently about ten months in the making and still going. I've been posting to AO3 for years and decided to bring this story over along with all my other works. Hope you all enjoy the ride as we turn away from canon into what was mostly a hodgepodge of my ideas brought together into one tale. Enjoy!**

One minute he was running for his life from mechanized spheres trying to murder him. He met a group of defective Gems called the Off-Colors that were persecuted just like him. He had to watch a longtime friend of his die trying to protect him, only to somehow revive him with his tears. It was a miracle that just kept giving as Steven Universe suddenly had the perfect escape back to Earth.

Now he was home. As he fell through Lion's mane onto the floor of his bedroom, Steven's mind was still reeling. _"I'm alive! I'm on Earth! The other are-"_

His bewilderment was interrupted when a bright column of light sprung up from the warp pad revealing Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Connie and his father Greg all with dire looks.

The jubilant half-gem ran down the stairs and stopped just as Pearl began pacing back and forth in a huff.

"This is hopeless," she muttered, "We'll never get that dropship to fly and we're losing time! Who knows what they're doing to Steven? Hi, Steven. What are we going to d-." was all she got out before the five saw him.

Their expressions all became elated with Pearl and Greg getting misty-eyed just seeing their pride and joy alive and well again. They all rushed him with open arms and Steven just laughed as the nightmare seemed to finally be over. He knew he had to retrieve Lars and the Off-Colors from the terrors of Homeworld someday, but for now he soaked up the love his family and best friend were sharing at his return.

* * *

However, unbeknownst to any of them, there were two souls furious at Steven.

Millions of lightyears away, on the bustling gem Homeworld there was a frantic search growing going through the planet wide city. Robotic patrols scoured the top of every skyscraper and the darkest corners between buildings for any sign of the dreaded "Rose Quartz." Gems were disgruntled by the intrusions of some of the robonoids as they broke the daily flow.

The chaos was all coming from a single black spire where the two primary matriarchs of the galaxy-spanning Gem Empire were still in a frenzy over the past few minutes. Both of them were fifty-feet tall and shared a sense of disbelief at how a common execution had turned into such a fiasco.

The more vocal of the two was various shades of yellow with a normally reticent demeanor that was pushed to its limits. She was heatedly commanding dozens of orders from her personal screen as she found absolutely no trace of their prisoner. She would never resort to piloting robonoids herself, but this was a matter she refused to let her subjects know about if she could avoid it.

The other was several hues of blue with a constantly mournful expression that was reigning more than ever as tears of confusion and bitterness dropped several stories to the illuminated floor beneath her. She was finally going to have justice for her fallen sister, the very gem responsible for all this pain was right in front of her, and now nothing!

Yellow Diamond was growing ever more restless with the fruitlessness of her efforts until she finally snapped her screen shut and screamed in anger. "HOW?! How could that accursed Rose Quartz escape?! I have thousands of robonoids scanning every fiber of the capital and everything is coming up is negative!"

"Is there any warp activity?" Blue Diamond peeped.

"Negative. And, unless she defused every radar on the planet simultaneously, she has not stolen any aircraft. There isn't even any gem witness who can vouch for it, although that may be for the best. We do not need this going public, but now that we know she is still whole we **cannot** let that remain. Pearl?"

"Yes, my Diamond?" asked Yellow Pearl, still standing beside her massive throne.

"You are to not let any gem know about the events that just transpired here. Report to every gem under my command on Homeworld and the nearest colonies to increase monitoring all aircraft and warp activity until further notice. You have permission to declare this as a direct order from me and, if necessary, have any gem who questions your authority shattered."

Her Pearl's face lit up at being handed such a monumental task. "With pleasure, my Diamond! I swear we will capture that traitor at once!" She dashed off to the nearest warp pad to reach the first communication tower in the vicinity with an even more arrogant skip in her step.

With that addressed, Yellow Diamond turned to her blue counterpart who was still racking with silent sobs. In a rare moment of comfort, she placed a hand on Blue Diamond's shoulder. "Blue, you need to have your pearl do the same," she quietly demanded, "We are not going to track down that Rose Quartz by standing here wallowing in guilt."

Suddenly the crying ceased. The normally docile Diamond grew silent as cracks began appearing in the floor beneath her feet. Her mind was suddenly filled with images of Rose Quartz facing the most painful fates imaginable. When she spoke, it sounded as if ice itself found a voice. "I understand, Yellow. We will find her, and she will _pay_ for her crimes. I will not rest until I have her in pieces."

**And now we have started! How will the Diamonds act? What will Steven do with his freedom? Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	2. Business as Usual

**Time to head back to Earth for some gem-fueled nonsense! Yay!**

After what felt like hours the group hug in the beach house broke up, yet the cheer was still evident. All eyes were still on Steven as if he would vanish out of thin air or the wonderful dream would end. Greg was the first to speak up, grasping his son by the shoulders.

"Steven, thank the starts you're okay! Are you hurt? Did those gems probe you or something?"

"Probe? Geez, Greg. We aren't your cheesy sci-fi movies," Amethyst cracked, "What, do you think we have little antenna hidden somewhere?"

"Hey! When you're an average car washing millionaire, whose son has been abducted by sentient space rocks you aren't that well-informed about the situation."

Garnet lowered down and lifted the distraught father back to his feet. "It's alright, Greg. We haven't been on Homeworld in thousands of years, so we aren't the foremost experts on the topic."

This got Connie flustered all over again. "So, what did they do to you? Did they torture you? Test dangerous experiments on you? Throw you in some horrific gladiator arena where you had to battle cosmic horrors for their amusement?!" Of all people, Pearl was the one who had to get her to calm down before she started hyperventilating.

"Connie don't work yourself up over that. Clearly, Steven is unharmed. They probably just put him in some jail cell." That got Connie to breath normally again but started up her own paranoia.

"So… just out of curiosity… I mean, to put everyone else at ease, what exactly happened to you on Homeworld?"

Steven answered with "The Diamonds put me on trial," as easily as most people would comment on the weather. Pearl did not take the news well.

"You were on trial in front of the DIAMONDS?! They would shatter you on sight! HOW?! ARE?! YOU?! STILL?! ALIIIIIIVE?!" she screamed like a banshee while shaking the half-gem by his wrinkled pink shirt. He could only respond with a shout, his voice billowing along with his garment. Garnet had to literally pry Pearl's quaking hands off his clothes to get her to stop.

"Relax, Pearl. I'm sure Steven will tell us all the story in the morning. Right now, he needs some sleep and we all need some time to readjust now that we don't have to mount a rescue mission."

As if on command, Steven let out a huge yawn as the adrenaline from his Homeworld escapades left his system. Amethyst decided to carry him up to his bed to save him the trouble of walking while Pearl and Garnet left for the temple and Greg promised Connie a ride home as they walked outside. In only a few minutes Steven was fast asleep in his favorite yellow pajamas, the gems went to their respective rooms to unwind and Connie was buckling up as Mr. Universe started up his van.

Connie was completely silent for several minutes of uneventful nighttime driving. Greg noticed how morose she was for a girl whose best friend miraculously returned from certain death and tried to raise her spirits.

"Sure is a gorgeous night, eh Connie?" he asked in the hopes of starting a conversation.

"Yeah, real pretty." Her eyes never left the window as the small expanse of Beach City passed for the grassy roads leading to the Mahesweran household.

"I bet your parents are gonna be thrilled to hear Steven's okay!"

"Yep. They were worried sick hearing about it."

Greg decided to try a more direct approach. "So, uh, do you have anything on your chest bugging you?"

"Just really tired. I want to forget all this ever happened." This was the final straw and the talking ceased for the rest of the trip. Before long they pulled up in front of Connie's house. She did give a solid thank you before exiting his van and heading to her front door.

"Sheesh. She must have something eating away at her…" he muttered to no one as he stayed parked for a few moments. "Eh, her parents are smart enough to get to the bottom of this." He then put the van back in drive and headed to his car wash for his own good night's sleep.

* * *

All of the lights were still on at the Mahesweran house despite the late hour. Dr. Priyanka Mahesweran was sitting in one of the living room couches with a mug of coffee to keep her energy high despite her body crying out for sleep. Her husband Doug was currently running a sort of patrol around the house to calm his nerves, currently pacing in the kitchen while silently debating if he could sneak a pudding cup from the fridge while his wife was occupied. Both of them burning the midnight oil was rewarded as their beloved daughter enter through the front door. Priyanka wasted no time wrapping her arms around her daughter with all the strength she could muster from the caffeine in her system.

"Connie! I wasn't sure what time you were coming back, so I waited up for you. Any developments?"

She pulled back and noticed how dejected Connie was, setting off her maternal instincts. "Connie? Did something happen while you and the Gems were working? Are you hurt?!"

"No. Steven's back on Earth. He found his own way home," she spoke flatly.

"What?! That's… fantastic! I'm so glad this all worked out, I figured the police would be no help and…" she continued to ramble, mostly thanks to her remaining nerves and the rest of the coffee she downed in her fervor, but Connie lost interest and started walking upstairs to her room. Before she could reach the staircase, though, she was tackled to the floor by her father.

"Connie! How did you get home by yourself? Did you all finish that spaceship already? Do I need to come into space this time?" he asked in rapid-fire succession.

"Dad?! No, it's fine! Mr. Universe drove me home and Steven's back anyway so…"

That only got Doug even more riled up. Not wanting to face another onslaught of overprotective parent badgering, Connie dashed up the stairs and slammed the door to her room. Mr. and Mrs. Mahesweran were puzzled by this.

"What's gotten into her? I'd have guessed her to be over the moon seeing Steven alive and well again. Did he say something to her?" Doug pondered.

Dr. Mahesweran just shrugged her shoulders. "Who can say? Regardless of the case, Connie must be exhausted after all this and she could use some sleep. As could we." As the parents made their way up, however, the doctor was the one with a medical question for her spouse.

"Doug?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Do you know how to get my hand to stop jittering?" She held up her right hand, now shaking like a leaf, for emphasis. "I think that fourth cup was a mistake."

"Don't worry, your body will process it all soon. I had to build up plenty of tolerance to work the night shifts at first. Besides," he began whisper into her hair as his hand wrapped around hers to keep them steady, "We both know I'm better at keeping you up than putting you to sleep," he added with a coy grin.

Priyanka was mortified. "Doug?! Keep it down with that, Connie is in the house and probably still awake!" she said in hushed whispers, not realizing they had already passed Connie's room. The Maheswerans' two-story townhouse had a living room and kitchen take up the ground floor while the upper floor was a linear hallway with the master bedroom at the end, Connie's bedroom on the right side of the hall and her own full bathroom to the left side plus a storage closet next to Connie's room.

As her parents continued to banter as they readied for bed, Connie was trying to put her still racing mind to rest as she lay in bed still dressed in full clothes. She had a jumble of thoughts all coursing through her brain at once. After what felt like eternity, she managed to keep her eyes shut and drift off to sleep, hoping that the ringing in her ears would cease.

**Yeah...Someone was bound to take this poorly. What will happen with Pearl and Connie? Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	3. Back to Work

**And with enough set up built, it's time for action! Anyone else remember when this show was focused on goofy weekly adventures? Well, I made one of my own! Enjoy!**

Steven awoke to find the sun well above the horizon and his body fully refreshed after a night of alien legislation and oppression. He relished just being able to relax in his own bed after so much happened. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he noticed the sounds of waves outside, the quiet snoring of Lion on the couch below him and a certain figure right next to him.

"Good morning, Steven. You seem well rested," said Pearl as she kneeled at the side of his bed. She had a habit many months back about watching her young charge sleep, but Steven never remembered her staying all night.

"Uh, hey Pearl. Are you okay?" he asked, slightly flustered by her presence.

"Oh, I'm just glad to see you sleep well after such a traumatic experience. Plus, I suddenly had so much free time on my hands…" Steven gradually got up and moved down to the bathroom in order to change clothes. Since he was in there, he decided to shower and brush his teeth as well. After about half an hour he finally felt clean and donned his regular pink shirt and jeans, ready to take on the day after a hearty breakfast. When he exited the bathroom, however, he saw Pearl standing beside the counter with a plate of waffles and eggs already prepared.

"Pearl, you made me breakfast?"

"Of course I did, Steven. I guessed the last thing you'd want to do is cook so I took the liberty to prepare your meal."

"Um, thanks?" he shrugged. His skepticism was not because he did not appreciate the fact but considering Pearl did not eat at all makes her as qualified to cook as Steven was to practice orthodontics. His fears, however, quickly melted away when he caught scent of the still hot waffles dripping in maple syrup and eggs scrambled with salt, pepper and a sprinkle of cheese. The thought was doubled by his growling stomach as he sat down in dug in, Pearl moving behind him as he tore into his breakfast with gusto. The most he had to do was get some water to drink as he downed his food in no time flat.

"Thanks, Pearl! When did you get so good at cooking?" he asked the gem still observing him.

"Well, I myself may not need nourishment, but I know you do and seeing as I've watched your eating habits for over several years, I figured out how you enjoy your food to be prepared." Her mouth could not help but form a small smirk as she spoke. "Do you need anything else, Steven?"

"No thanks. I'm just going to around town for a bit and see how everyone is." He gave Peal a hug before running out the door in his sandals. Soon after, Amethyst emerged from her room and noticed the plate for Steven's breakfast was in the sink. The smaller gem let out an annoyed groan.

"Aw man! He's done breakfast already? I was going to snatch some off of him," she grumbled before noticing her fellow gem. "Hey Pearl. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing, Amethyst. I just need to go outside for a while."

"Okay. Have fun." She was already snooping in the fridge for something to eat as Pearl walked out the front door.

* * *

Steven spent the entire day going around Beach City on his bike checking in on everyone after all the excitement yesterday. While the residents of the sleepy town tended to overlook most of the supernatural occurrences around them, the fact that two of their own were abducted was impossible to ignore. While everyone was overjoyed to see Steven in one piece, there was still despair since Lars had not returned. His mother and father took the news the hardest and Sadie was rather crushed when she heard the news as well, though all of them reassured that he could bring him home. Mayor Dewey decided to take a proactive approach and was announcing new security measures in case of further extraterrestrial encounters. As the sun began to set, Steven finally called it a day and headed home. As he turned his bike onto the sand, he felt all the strain set in and looked forward to another night of sleep. When he opened the door to his home, he found someone sitting on the couch.

"Good evening Steven."

"Hey Garnet," he muttered tiredly as he began to gather his things for bed, "What are you doing here?"

"Just waiting for Pearl to get back. She's been out all day."

"Really? I was out all-around town and I never saw her."

"I know, it's not like her to just leave without notice. Don't worry about it, though, you just get to bed."

"Okay. Good night Garnet." With that and a mighty yawn, he snuggled into his covers as the moon began to rise and Pearl entered the house. She started to head up the stairs towards Steven's room but someone else got her attention by clearing her throat.

"Garnet! Oh, I, well this is, um, what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you. You just left this morning."

"Well, I thought some fresh air would be a great relief after being so stressed out, that's all…" she replied with the confidence of a leaf going up against a hurricane.

"I know you spent the entire day following Steven around town. I know you can be protective, but this is pushing it."

Pearl sighed in defeat as, once again, Garnet was one step ahead. "I know, it seems ridiculous to have to watch over him all day, but I felt horrible just letting him go like that. He's extremely fortunate to still be here and I would hate myself if something were to happen to him."

Garnet simply walked back into her room, muttering "I know the feeling…" under her breath. Pearl did not pick up on it.

"What was that, Garnet?"

"Just ease up on Steven. He will be fine."

* * *

For several days Steven simply enjoyed life as normal without any threat from the Diamonds or other magical maladies. He spent time with each of the Gems, hung out with his dad, and basked in the relative normalcy he had. Not everything was perfect, though, since he could not get a hold of Connie. He tried calling her several times a day and left voicemails suggesting they should hang out. When none of those got replies, he began worrying he upset her somehow and started making apologies and offering to talk it out. Still nothing and now it had been almost a week! He started carrying around his phone constantly, sometimes just staring at it for minutes at a time as dread began to envelope him that he jeopardized his relationship with his best friend.

He was in one of those funks while Amethyst was messing around with the television and Pearl was folding Steven's laundry when Garnet emerges from her room in the temple with an important announcement.

"Everyone, we have a mission. There's a corrupted gem on the loose that needs to be stopped."

That quickly got everyone's attention, particularly Steven who looked up from his phone happy to have something else occupy his mind. As they all gathered on the warp pad, Pearl looked to Garnet with worry and started to whisper into her ear.

"I think we should leave Steven home for this one. I'm not sure he should be exposed to this much commotion so soon…"

"Pearl, it has been a week. Steven is more than capable of handling himself on a mission. If it makes you feel better, you can stay by his side."

The youngest Crystal Gem was oblivious to their conversation as they landed in their destination: a snowy expanse not unlike the last mission he went on with Connie. The biggest difference was that instead of trees covering the area, it was a bare tundra with nothing distinguishing about the landscape except crevasses and mounds changing the terrain. Thankfully, Pearl had one of Steven's winter coats on hand in her gem and placed it around his shoulders as he began to shiver. Garnet, knowing they had a wide area to cover, planned to split them up. This naturally meant she headed off to the east with Amethyst while Pearl and Steven took to the west. The two Gems set off, scanning the icy steppe for any sign of their target. Steven was taking the cold on the chin, while Pearl began getting rather jittery as her nerves frayed.

The minutes passed as the two traipsed the frozen land with little to occupy them but the sounds of frigid winds and their thoughts. Steven was calmly humming a tune to himself while Pearl's paranoia continued to act up, checking behind her, above her head, or even pausing altogether to look around for threats.

"Pearl, what's wrong? You look scared," Steven addressed.

"Oh, it's nothing Steven. I'm just… wondering how Garnet and Amethyst are doing! Yes, that must be it!" she stammered. Steven only raised his eyebrow before resuming his tune only for him to almost fall off a shelf of ice.

"Steven! Don't be so reckless! You could have hurt yourself!" shouted Pearl in near-hysterics.

Steven looked down past the edge of the cliff, worried that something horrible lay at the bottom and…

"It's only three feet." To prove his point, he jumped off the edge and easily stopped whatever minor damage could have happened with a bit of floating. Pearl was not amused.

"That's beside the point. You were not watching where you were going and needlessly put yourself at risk." She quickly jumped after him and looked down on him in anger.

"Pearl, I'm sorry! You're right I wasn't watching where I was going, but it's nothing to get worked up about." He was trying to diffuse the situation, but Pearl was not letting it go.

"I knew you weren't ready for this again. I should've convinced Garnet to make you stay at the temple…"

"What?!" Now Steven was getting riled. It was one matter to yell at him but talking behind his back was a sore subject for him. "Why would you do that? I'm not some little kid, I can take care of myself!"

"Well apparently not!" She grabbed Steven by the wrist and started tugging him back towards the warp pad. "As soon as we get home, you are grounded until further notice! And I'll be sure to tell the other Gems _and_ your father to make sure you don't run off!"

"But I don't need someone doting on me. I'm a Crystal Gem just like you!"

The two were now at a standstill as the winds whipped around them. Pearl was desperately pulling with all her strength, but Steven was dragging his feet to keep him in place. Despite the cold, one could practically see the steam coming off of the two as they argued until Pearl finally lost it.

"Oh, _really_? Because the last time _I_ heard, you were trying to pass yourself off as **Rose Quartz**!"

Suddenly Steven felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pearl looked devastated as soon as the words left her mouth. They looked at each other as snowflakes started to pelt the two in the growing wind. Pearl tried to backpedal as the younger gem's eyes began to tear up.

"Steven… I…"

Before much discussion could happen, though, the ice began to buckle beneath them, and a deafening roar sounded across the snowy plain. A massive figure began to emerge several feet away: a humongous furry mammoth over twenty feet tall and thirty feet long with purple-white fur, two massive tusks as long as Garnet which it was using to carve through the ice floor like butter, and a huge trunk with a light-violet square gem along its enormous length. Its cloudy white eyes were focused on the two Crystal Gems, enraged that they disturbed its slumber with all their commotion and began bellowing as it charged straight at them. Steven and Pearl pulled out their respective weapons and tried to outflank the creature, but it simply turned its body and slammed into the two with its curiously hard tail. The two were sent sprawling and decided they needed Garnet and Amethyst for a creature of this size.

Steven leaped in front of Pearl with his shield poised to block whatever the monster could dish out. "Go, Pearl!" he shouted as them monster readied another charge, "You find the others, I'll keep it busy."

Pearl, though touched by his bravery, refused to abandon him and instead got in front of him with her spear at the ready. "No Steven, let me deal with this thing while you get the others!"

The behemoth just kept coming closer as they two squabbled over who was protecting who, one leaping in front of the other hoping to act as a shield long enough for the others to arrive. After several switches, Pearl won out as the corrupted mammoth was only a few feet away. She soared into the air with a massive jump as Steven began running behind it to find Garnet and Amethyst. As Pearl hit the arc of her jump, she forced herself down at an accelerated rate with her spear pointed straight at the monster's spine. It was a direct hit, but the corrupted gem refused to go down with one hit. While it yelled in pain, it lurched upwards and forced Pearl, still clinging to her weapon, back onto the snowy ground in a daze. Its rigid tail suddenly snapped like a whip and forced the already stunned Pearl several feet into the ice. With one nuisance crushed, it turned its hateful eyes at a now terrified Steven, clinging to his shield for dear life!

As much as Steven wanted to check on Pearl, he knew stopping this beast was the top priority and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. He prayed the others heard the scuffle and were already on their way, but he turned around to find the monster was charging behind him. Much to his horror, it seems the gem was much faster than it appeared as the distance between it and Steven was rapidly closing! Steven was one step away from panicking, but suddenly got an idea. He banked a quick right turn and, like he planned, the monster tried in vain to follow him only to skid hopelessly out of control thanks to its greater momentum. The mammoth gem ended up flat on its side and flailed its feet in vain, desperate to regain its footing. Unfortunately for it, Steven was not done as he ran forward looking to finish the job.

_"I can't believe that worked!" _he thought excitedly. His body was filled with adrenaline and he could swear his gem was glowing as he charged at the downed behemoth.

His thoughts were equally filled with joy. _"I can do this myself! I can protect them! I can do this!" _He felt his weapon appear in hand and planned to push the monster into a snowbank he spotted, or possibly retaliate if it somehow got up for a second round. He readied his shield, holding it straight at the monster's underside and made contact…

And then it poofed! One minute it was still struggling to get up, thrashing at the ground with its trunk and tail in rage, and the next minute nothing! All that remained was a purple square which Steven bubbled without a second thought. Before he could send it back to the temple, he heard someone running up to him at breakneck speed.

"Hang on, Steven!" Pearl shouted over the arctic wind; unaware the danger had passed. She had spears in both hands, radiating righteous fury, ready to protect her beloved Steven…

"Pearl, it's okay!" he cheered and showed the now bubbled gem, "I did it! I stopped the monster!"

The older gem was baffled at first. Steven beat a monster by himself? While her mind struggled to catch up on how, pride quickly began to overtake as she hugged Steven. They embraced each other as the winds began to die down and the clouds parted. The sunshine lit them and the plain up as peace and quiet was restored to the tundra once more. As Pearl let go of her charge, however, the weapon still in Steven's hand caught her eye.

"Steven, where did you get that?" she asked tepidly.

"What do you mean, Pearl?" Steven asked back, still elated with his victory.

"I mean, when did you get my spear?"

The young boy had no idea what she was talking about. He looked at his weapon, still summoned in his one hand, only to find the point of a pink spear.

"WHAT THE?!" shouted Steven in disbelief. He could have sworn he was holding his shield, but his eyes were not playing tricks on him. Pearl stood up, completely baffled, as she pulled her own spear out for comparison. The only differences between the two was the color (Steven's was pink to match his own gem) and the size as he was several feet shorter. There was no mistaking it, though. Steven had somehow copied Pearl's weapon in the heat of the battle. The two began trudging through the snow in stunned silence with Steven keeping his spear out. He gripped it as hard as he could, in case this all turned out to be an elaborate dream.

**I would use the old "DUN-DUN-DUN" sting, but I have WAY too many plot twists to use that gimmick so early. But yeah, another new power for  
****Steven! What will this entail? Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	4. Moving On

**Hey, didn't I bring up Connie being upset in Chapter 2? Some grade-A jack-hole I was to leave you all on a cliffhanger! You go ahead and read while I scold myself for leaving you all in suspense.**

When Garnet and Amethyst reunited with Steven and Pearl, they were impressed to find the monster already defeated and bubbled. They were also shocked to see the two looking so bewildered, despite their victory with what appeared to be no serious casualties. It was answered when they caught sight of Steven holding his own spear. Amethyst, of course, thought this could only be a positive.

"Dude that is AWESOME!" she cheered as they all marched through the snow. "Does this mean you can do ANY gem weapon? Can you do fusion weapons?! Ooh, I can't wait to teach you how to use my whip!" Pearl just put her face in her hands and groaned at that last statement.

Steven was glad to see Amethyst was so eager because he was beyond perplexed. He never had a brand-new ability show up in the middle of a fight. Of course, they all sprung up at some point, but at least his shield, his bubble, his healing tears, and his floating happened when he was not fighting for his life. It did not help that with the mission complete, his mind turned back to Connie. The only thought stopping him from checking his phone was the complete lack of cell service in the Arctic.

Eventually the group all made it back to the temple and sent the corrupted gem bubble to be stored with the others. Before anyone could comment on their latest mission, Steven's cell phone rang. The young boy finally dissipated his spear and answered the call as fast as he could.

"Hello? Connie?"

"No, Steven, it's your dad."

Steven deflated slightly but kept his voice high. "Oh, hey Dad. What's up?"

"It's just a weird thing is happening at the car wash. When was the last time you talked to Connie?"

"I haven't heard from her in over a week. I've been trying to call her for days, but she never picks up. What's the problem?" He was not liking where this was going.

"Well, the weird thing happening here? Connie and her family are having their car washed and there's a moving truck following them."

"WHAT?! CONNIE'S MOVING AWAY?!" The other Gems were instantly on high alert.

"Well, it looks like they have everything all packed up. I talked to Doug and he said he just asked to change locations at his job. Dr. Mahesweran just said they needed a change in scenery and Connie has been silent the entire time. All I know for sure is Connie was pretty depressed when I dropped her off after you got back."

Steven was only half-listening as he was already racing out to meet Lion, the large feline sunbathing on the patio, heading out to stop his best friend.

"Just keep them there as long as you can! I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and looked ready to go only for the Gems to follow him outside.

"Steven, what's this about Connie leaving?" asked Pearl.

"She's moving out of Beach City and she won't say why. I need to get over there and stop her!"

"Go. You need to resolve this now," affirmed Garnet. With that, Lion leapt off the porch and dashed across the sands as fast as he could. Pearl could not help but wonder something.

"Should we go with him? Maybe we could say something to clear all this up…"

"No, he definitely needs to handle this himself. But while he's gone, I need something from you."

"Yes?"

"Tell me exactly what happened on your mission." Garnet led Pearl back inside to hear the whole story while Amethyst followed, excited about the exploits that led to Steven's new power.

* * *

Steven was dashing past the boardwalk at a breakneck pace. In his haste Steven forgot he could have Lion summon a portal straight to the car wash, but there was also the matter if Lion felt like obeying. It did not matter either way as after several tense minutes and scaring the living daylights out of some Beach City inhabitants, Steven could spot the Mahesweran car and the moving truck still parked. Greg had held up his end of the bargain by offering Doug a free car waxing, which the latter simply could not refuse.

Connie and her mother were just sitting in the car waiting for Greg to finish his work and idly passing the time by observing the suburban scenery one last time before they left for Keystone. For the past week, Connie's parents could not get her to open up about her qualms with Steven to the point where when they tried taking away her dinner, she just refused to eat. And now it, along with her anxiety, seemed to be finally getting to her. When Connie saw a pink blip on the horizon, she noticed Steven riding Lion. The young girl panicked and shook her mother's shoulders.

"Come on, Mom! We have to go!"

"Connie, what's the rush? We don't have to be at our new house until the evening and it's a long drive."

"Because…" Fortunately her stomach began rumbling due to her skipping breakfast that morning. "I'm starving! If I don't eat something soon, I might get sick." She made sure to sound extra pained and unwell for effect. It worked flawlessly as Priyanka's maternal instincts and doctor's intuition kicked in simultaneously. She quickly got in the passenger's seat and yelled for Doug to join her.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"We need to get Connie something to eat. All this stress is finally getting to her."

This left Doug little choice but to get in the driver's seat and head out to the nearest restaurant. The car pulled out and the truck holding their belongings followed as they left the suburbs to start towards the freeway out of Delmarva. Greg tried in vain to delay them, but they were set and took off just as Steven and Lion charged up behind them. Since they were still in the suburbs, the caravan was moving slowly at first and allowed Steven to move right alongside the car much to the surprise of the driver.

"Hi, Mr. Mahesweran!"

Doug had to clamp the wheel with all his might to avoid driving onto a sidewalk, but before long he and the moving truck were out of the suburbs and pushing the higher speed limit of the two-lane road out of Beach City. Lion was doing his best but eventually the car passed him.

"Come on Lion! We need to keep up!" encouraged Steven, clinging for dear life as the two followed the road onto the highway. The pink feline was trying his hardest, but it seems he had hit his max speed. As they trounced along the busier road, they also had to contend with traffic and several stupefied drivers nearly crashing into them. Steven began dreading the worst, not only for his and his pet's safety, that Connie would simply leave his life.

The entrance to the highway was only a few miles away. Lion was keeping pace with the moving truck, but the Mahesweran car was gaining speed as it neared the highway. All at once Steven felt a jumble of emotions erupt in him: anguish over ruining his friendship, outrage that Connie could just throw away everything they've been through, and passion that no matter what he would NOT let it end like this. The car was changing lanes to get on the highway. Steven had to end this **now.**

"Lion, keep running. I'm about to do something stupid." Steven stood up on his own two legs and mustered all the strength he had into one massive jump. Before long he was hundreds of feet into the air which did not go unnoticed by the now frantic parents.

"What on Earth are those Gems feeding him?!" shouted an incredulous Priyanka. Doug was forced to keep his eyes on the road while his wife and daughter stared in shock.

Steven was not done yet, though. Now that he was in the air, he began forcing himself to fall at a rapid rate. He angled his body downward and forced himself to rocket towards the asphalt as fast he could. The car just barely made it onto the ramp before Steven crashed down in front of them, flipping just before impact to land feet first, and faced the vehicle head on. Doug slammed on the brakes, but Steven was ready. He held out his hands and caught the skidding car with enough give to prevent a full-on crash, but still left his handprint dents in the grill. Steven was pushed back, but he managed to bring the car to a standstill only a few feet away from where the acceleration lane started. The Maheswerans were all too astonished to say a word. Their terror quickly turned to disbelief as Steven simply walked up to the back door and knocked on the window where Connie was seated. At first, she refused to budge and ignored him, only for her mother to have other ideas.

"Connie Prisha Mahesweran, you get out of this car and talk to your friend THIS INSTANT!" she screamed.

Thanks to the dreaded middle-name reflex, Connie obeyed and undid her seatbelt. Steven, his face a grimace ever since he stopped the car, opened her door like a gentleman before laying into her.

"What the heck has gotten into you, Connie?! First you act mad at me, but won't explain why, then you try to skip town without even saying goodbye? What gives?!"

Connie looked her best friend in the eyes with a scowl on her face. "What gives is that you made it obvious you don't care about me."

Steven was taken aback by her answer, and all the madder for it. "What are you talking about? Of course, I care about you! What made you think something like that?"

Connie turned away from her as she answered his question with her own. "Do you remember when Pearl first started teaching me sword fighting?" He nodded.

"She instilled this belief in me that your life is more important than mine. I was to be your knight and face any danger that threatened you no matter how great. When I started to believe it, you talked me out of it and told me we would face danger together. As a team, you and me. Guess you didn't really mean it, after all…"

Steven was startled by how cold and callous Connie was acting, her hands trembling and her voice cutting into him. He quickly put together where her anger was stemming from.

"This is about me giving myself up to the Diamonds…"

"OF COURSE IT IS, YOU IDIOT!" She proceeded to slap him before continuing her tirade.

"You told me months ago that we would face anything _together_! You always said we'd have each other's back, no matter _what_ happens! When _I_ was willing to sacrifice myself for you, it was wrong and had to be stopped! But when _you_ do it for me, it's not a problem?!"

"I… I did it protect everyone, not just you…" That only increased Connie's wrath and got Steven another slap to the face.

"That's not the point! The point is you _lied_ to me, Steven! You went off and tried to be the hero even though that's _exactly_ what you talked me out of doing! And you didn't just scare me. You freaked out the Gems, your father, and the rest of the city! That's not brave, Steven, that's being stupid AND a hypocrite!"

Once her outburst was done, Connie felt all the energy drain out of her system and she had to lean against the idle car to remain standing. Steven, despite his face still stinging, moved in closer as his friend began weeping.

"Steven… I thought you were dead. When you got on that ship, it felt like you signed your own death warrant." She began shuddering as all the heartbreak and horror of that night came out at once.

"For all I knew… they would just fly their ship straight into the sun or kill you as soon as you landed. And the worst part about it all? All that training I went through? It was all for nothing. My best friend was as good as dead and there was nothing I could do about it…"

Steven fully understood how badly he hurt his best friend. He could not find an adequate response to all her woes, so he settled on simply holding arms and letting her vent. Connie finally broke down completely in his arms as she bawled and screamed as all the pain left her at long last. Her body shook violently, and her breathing was erratic, but she returned his hug with her own embrace. The two clung to each other as if they would be ripped apart at any moment. As Connie began to calm down, Steven made sure to assuage any remaining guilt.

"Connie, I'm sorry I abandoned you. I will never throw myself away again. If I ever get abducted again, I'll be sure to bring you with me…" At long last, Connie smiled for the first time in days and laughed at his ever-present optimism.

"Thank you, Steven. I'll look forward to the day we get abducted."

Priyanka and Doug were relieved to hear their daughter happy once again. The latter of the two, however, was also wrapping up a phone call with his employer about his new assignment. He sighed in annoyance but smiled nonetheless.

"I just told my boss to move me back to Beach City. He wasn't happy about how sudden it is, but some late shifts and a few boxes of donuts ought to clear it all up. Guess we should tell the movers to turn around."

"In a minute, Doug. Let the two have a moment. Although I still have one question for Steven when they're done."

"Really? What's that?"

The mother's eyes suddenly bolted open and grabbed her husband by the shoulders. "What are those Gems feeding him?!"

* * *

After helping the Maheswerans move everything back into their townhouse, which involved explaining to the mayor where a certain new pothole came from, Steven and Connie returned to the beach house on Lion to show that everything was back to normal. The two walked in the front door just as the sun began to set and found the Crystal Gems ruminating on the couch, still deep in thought over the last mission. All three looked up to see Connie and were all instantly uplifted, Pearl especially so.

"Oh, thank goodness you're still here!" She proceeded to hug long-time student before continuing. "We were all worried that you'd do something you regret. So, is there anything you need to tell us?" The young girl nodded.

"I'm really sorry, everyone. I should have told Steven how I felt instead of doing something so reckless. I was just confused and angry about this whole mess."

"Connie, it's not your fault," professed Steven, "This never would have happened if I didn't do something so outrageous. I never should've played the hero and gone to Homeworld."

All of them were taken aback by his words. "It's okay, Steven. You were just trying to keep us all safe," assured Garnet, but the young boy was not done.

"No, it's not okay! I made you all go crazy over something I never even did! I never thought of how badly you'd all feel if I got hurt or worse…" Pearl had heard enough and hunched down to meet Steven's gaze.

"Steven don't degrade yourself. Yes, what you did was beyond headlong and idiotic, but your intentions still meant well. Of course, we were all terrified, but we know you weren't doing it because you wanted to. You did it because you had little other choice and wanted to stop innocent humans from being dragged into space. We've all done ridiculous things for less noble reasons, Steven. You should never hate yourself for wanting to protect people."

"She's right, Steven," Connie pitched in, "I know you meant well, but all I could think about was being angry. When Pearl was teaching me at first, she only thought about doing the right thing. You just to need to think about both."

Steven's anguish and remorse faded away as he realized there was a middle ground in all this. Amethyst and Garnet looked on with grins as Steven, Connie and Pearl all came together for one last hug before Garnet made one matter clear.

"Steven, just remember if you ever do something like that again, you will never see a television again."

"Yes Garnet…" Even with that threat hanging over him, Steven was still in high spirits and everyone seemed to be at peace once again.

**And now that I've sufficiently scolded myself, it's time to bring this little arc to an end. But wait, the story's not over yet! What will happen now that everything seems all hunky-dory with the gems? Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	5. One Day Together

**And now, let's keep this story going with everyone's favorite barn-dwelling artists!**

Another day was going smoothly as Steven was practicing his new ability to summon other weapons. He still was not exactly sure how he summoned that spear to begin with, but he was already showing progress as he pulled out a pink whip that was an exact double of Amethyst's in everything except color.

"Aw yeah! Nice going, man!" cheered Amethyst, ecstatic that she finally had an opportunity to pass on the delicate art of whipping enemies in the butt.

Pearl, the one conducting this training session, applauded. "Very good, Steven. Now let's see if you can do Garnet's gauntlets."

The lead gem was quietly beaming at how far along Steven was coming. She decided to go easy on him and only pull out one of her signature armored gloves, thinking both would be a bit much for his first time. The young boy focused on the weapon and imagined forming around his own hand, which was proving to be a very effective mental process, as a pink gauntlet of his own appeared on his right hand.

"Woah! This is cool!" he cheered before falling to the floor thanks to the glove's weight.

"Looks like you'll need to start exercising more," teased Garnet.

Before their lesson could continue, however, the warp pad activated to reveal Peridot beaming in from the barn. It was obvious she was in one of her fits as her brow was sweating and she looked ready to pounce on the first person unlucky enough to set her off (which, fortunately for that person, Peridot has the physical strength of a small housecat so the damage would be minimal.)

"Steven! I need to come to the barn now! Lapis needs to see you!" She tried to lead Steven to the warp pad, but her lack of strength only led to her scrambling as she hopelessly tugged on Steven's arm.

"Peridot calm down. What's the problem with Lapis?" said the boy trying to soothe the miniature gem's temper.

"Lapis has been panicking ever since we heard you were taken into space by hostile Homeworld Gems! I suggested we come here to offer our assistance in rescuing you, but she denied doing so and ever since I've been desperately trying to keep her from doing something drastic. At this point, nothing I say fazes her so I figure seeing living proof of your health and well-being will eliminate her doubts. Now let's go!" Steven relented and let himself be led to the warp pad. He waved a hasty goodbye to the Gems as the two beamed off.

Garnet was amused by the whole spectacle. "Not the kind of exercise I had in mind, but it'll do."

* * *

Peridot and Steven arrived in a literal flash and set about locating the frazzled Lapis Lazuli. Steven took to the ground and began calling Lapis' name in case she was in the barn or surrounding fields while Peridot scanned the skies for her flying barn-mate. Their efforts were soon met as the airborne Lapis quickly dived out of the air and tackled Steven with a flying hug.

"Oh Steven! Thank goodness you're okay!" Lapis cheered, "I've been going insane this whole time and Peridot kept telling me you would be alright, and she was right!"

"Yes, Lapis I'm okay," Steven chuckled "Now could you put me down? I think we're halfway back to town with your flying." Both of them looked down and saw the barn was now miles behind them, currently flying over the forests surrounding their country home thanks to the gem's unrestrained joy.

The two quickly made their way back to the barn where Peridot was solaced to see Lapis with a smile on her face for the first time in days. After they touched down, they were also welcomed back by Pumpkin, the excitable gourd dog hopping into Lapis' arms with a content yelp. Once the group was altogether, the latter spoke a question on her mind.

"So how did you get back to Earth, Steven? What happened to you in space?"

Since there was not much fat to trim with his story, he had to give every dangerous detail of his unwilling trip to Homeworld, his experience with the Diamonds, and his unexpected escape back to Earth. While Peridot was simply intrigued by his tale, Lapis looked positively terrified.

"Steven, you ran away from the Diamonds?!"

He could only nod. "Peridot, we need to leave this planet now."

"What?!" Peridot and Steven yelled, shocked by how drastic this decision was. It made sense that she would be concerned about this whole affair, but desperate enough to migrate to another world?

"Lapis, I don't believe that such a course of action is necessary. We have no evidence to suggest the Diamonds are retaliating in any way and Steven seems to be in perfect health. What's making you so frenzied?" asked Peridot.

"Because I don't want to get caught up in another war! The Diamonds tried to blow up this planet just because of something that happened thousands of years ago, remember?" Peridot was now cursing herself for ever letting her know about the Cluster.

Steven stepped between the two Gems before a full-blown argument could start. "Now, let's all calm down. Peridot, she has a point. I honestly wouldn't put it past them to do something because of me. And Lapis, I can understand you being scared, but are you sure you need to leave Earth? You could just hide somewhere else here."

She seemed to consider that for a second, but quickly shook her head. "No Steven, I've been to Homeworld too. They have unbelievable technology that's way beyond anything I could have imagined. I would guess they have some way to scan a planet for fugitives and criminals."

"Unfortunately, she's right," admitted Peridot, "And considering the prime threat that 'Rose Quartz' is to their society plus the fact that you did not escape through conventional means raising further suspicion, then I would not be surprised if Yellow and Blue Diamond simply backtrack to the planet where they found you and set about trying to locate you here."

As much as she hated the idea of abandoning the planet she had come to appreciate over several months, Peridot saw no major flaw in her companion's logic. Impressed she may be, but her emotions were anything but satisfied.

"But Lapis, we've spent so much time here! Do you really just want to throw it all away? I mean, just look at the barn!" All three of them gazed at the lovable madhouse that was now crammed full of their artistic endeavors, months of creative passion and manual love decorated every inch inside and out.

Lapis simply shrugged. "So, we'll take it with us. You, me and Pumpkin can move, and we'll bring all our meep-morps along." To prove her point, she used her powers to gather all the water from their personal pool and create an aquatic lift. After some groaning about leaving its foundation, the barn was aloft on a massive disk of water which the gem help in the air with no visible effort. Steven was frustrated, but knew he had to put his friend's feelings first. He decided to try one last point before relenting and letting them go into the great beyond.

"What about the other Crystal Gems?"

"What? What are you talking about?" said Lapis, caught off-guard by his question.

"Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. Don't you think they are going to miss you when you go?"

That was a sore subject for Lapis. While she no longer possessed any animosity towards them for her imprisonment in that cursed mirror, she was never that comfortable around them. Unlike Peridot, who had fully joined their cause, she held no such sentiments and preferred to leave them to their own devices.

"I kind of doubt that, Steven…" she responded morosely. This gave her friends an idea.

"Well why don't we find out? How about you spend your last days on Earth with them before you go?" suggested Steven.

"Huh?"

"I want you to spend one day with each of the Crystal Gems. If you do that, then you can leave Earth and I won't try to stop you."

The frightened gem rolled the idea around in her head, but quickly found reason for concern. "A day with _each_ of them? That's three whole days! What if Homeworld gets here by then?!" She started to panic, but Peridot offered a compromise.

"If that amount of time is unacceptable, then why not just the remainder of today. Steven, what time is it?" The young boy, shocked at how calm the vehement gem was acting. He pulled out his phone and showed the time was 2:57 PM.

"According to your measure of time, the end of a day on this planet is defined by the time Earth's satellite reaches its apogee during it's the time of rotation as this hemisphere faces away from the sun…" She stopped upon seeing Steven and Lapis tilt their heads in unison.

"Also known as midnight…" she grumbled. The two were quickly caught up and Peridot began pacing as she continued.

"At this time, that means there is just over nine hours remaining before the end of the day. Therefore, you will have three hours to spend with each gem before you depart. Now I may not be an expert on social interactions, but I theorize that it is feasible to establish a cursory bond with someone in that time limit."

She and Steven looked on as Lapis weighed the options in her mind. On the one hand, a day with those three was not an easy feat in her eyes. She never felt fully comfortable around them and she would be burning time that could be used getting out of the Diamonds' radar. On the other hand, she realized that Steven could be seriously hurt if she did not take on his proposal. Plus, she had become more open to new experiences…

"Alright. I'll do it." Steven cheered hearing this and immediately led her along to the warp pad to begin her special bonding time. This left Peridot alone with the barn feeling mixed emotions. She was grateful Lapis could see reason with this issue and felt this would be a beneficial exercise for her. It also gave her ample time to work out that sinking feeling in her head. After all, she never agreed to leave Earth. At least now she had nine hours to create diagrams of all the pros and cons with Pumpkin to keep her company.

**And now it's time for Lapis to face one of the most difficult foes imaginable: social interaction! Or maybe it's just difficult for me...Tune in next time while I contemplate my life choices!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	6. 3 to 6: Amethyst

**Time for some bonding between a rambunctious, junk-collecting wrestler and a sculpting, soap-opera watching recluse. Fun times as always!**

Steven and Lapis warped in while the Crystal Gems were conversing in the living room, waiting for the young boy's return so they could begin his new weapon training. That plan quickly went out the window upon seeing Lapis Lazuli, who seemed to be forcing herself to make eye contact with the others.

"Hey guys!" Steven greeted, "Lapis here is going to spend some time with each of you before she leaves."

"Leaves? What, is she gonna fly into space again?" joked Amethyst. She started laughing at her own joke only to see Lapis looked dead serious.

"Lapis why are you fleeing Earth?" asked Pearl. She tried to walk towards her for support, but the aquatic gem just backed away.

"Because I heard about what happened to Steven on Homeworld. I'm scared, no, I'm terrified that the Diamonds are going to come here to find him. I want to get away from another war before it breaks out… before I…" She could not bring herself to continue so Steven took over while holding her hand.

"I wanted her to spend a little bit of time with each of you before she goes. So, she's agreed to spend three hours with each of you. She's taking off at midnight tonight. I promised if she did this, I wouldn't stop her from going too."

Garnet was especially shocked to hear this. To think that Steven was putting someone so far ahead of himself was selfless, but also downright astonishing. He proceeded to look at his phone and realized that three PM was only seconds away.

"Alright, Lapis, your time begins now. Pick who you want to bond with first."

She glanced at all three of them with a wary look, as if they would pull something if she looked away. She has barely spoken to Garnet, had practically no exposure to Pearl, but did remember that one time Amethyst came to the barn when she was depressed. She figured if she was going to start anywhere, go with the one she has some basic connection with.

"I'll start with Amethyst," she grumbled.

The purple gem just took the entire deal in stride and walked up to her while Steven ushered Garnet and Pearl outside to pass the time until it was their turn. At first the two simply stood in the otherwise empty house staring at each other, neither one knowing where to start. After what could be described by those involved as eternity, Amethyst decided to just head into her room and beckoned Lapis to follow.

"You want to see all my junk?" asked Amethyst casually.

"Uh, sure."

Conversation has never been Lapis' forte. Even still, the two proceeded to the proper temple door which opened up in a gooey purple rift revealing the near-endless expanse of knickknacks and trinkets that made up Amethyst's quarters. Lapis was taken aback by disarray and was surprised by the sheer breadth of the junk, piles upon piles spreading on with some vague theme in mind.

Amethyst, looking right at home, just proceeded forward. "Bet ya Peri would have a fit if she saw this place!" she kidded.

"Actually, our place kind of looks like this. We have materials and stuff all over. Only the crops are really organized."

"Huh, I always thought of her as a neat freak like Pearl. She always goes on and on about how I need to straighten up this place."

The two just walked on through the massive cave with Amethyst acting as an informal tour guide describing some of her favorite tchotchkes. As they traveled further, Lapis was continuously kept silent by the sheer quantity of this gem's hoard. Eventually, her mind started wandering when Amethyst was telling an anecdote about her acquiring a rusty bayonet and her artistic sensibilities starting kicking in. She headed over to one pile consisting of various triangular objects made of everything from aged stone to acrylic plastic and started piecing them together into a pattern. When Amethyst looked over to see her guest lost interest in her story and was tinkering with her belongings, her irritation quickly faded when she saw Lapis calmly rearranging the pieces with a smile.

When she noticed Amethyst was staring at her, Lapis regained her subdued composure. "Oh, sorry. I should have asked before moving your stuff."

"Nah, it's cool. At least you aren't trying to bring order in here. It's nice seeing you chill out for once."

Lapis blushed at the compliment and continued at her work. Amethyst soon got up and started bringing her any piece she could think of and making suggestions on what to create next. The minutes began to blur by as the two Gems laughed and let their combined creativity explode, constantly disassembling and reshuffling each meep-morp with no real rhyme or reason. When Lapis accidentally brought up her time as Steven's beach-summer-fun buddy and their pranking the town mayor, Amethyst could barely contain herself.

"So, wait, let me get this straight," she laughed, "You, of all Gems, kept making fart noises in Dewey's speech?"

"Heh, yeah. I just did it because Steven thought it was funny…"

"That is awesome! I never would have taken you for a prankster! Man, if we had more time, there are SO many things I could teach you!"

"Like what?"

"Oh man, wait until you get a load of prank phone calls! Basically you call someone on their phone, trick them into saying something dumb, and then laugh your butt off when the other guy wises up. It. Is. Hilarious!"

The gem started rolling the idea around in her head, but suddenly started scowling. "This isn't your way of convincing me to stay, are you? Because I _am_ going."

"What, no! I just thought it would be funny. If you want to fly into space to get away from something you don't want to see, that's fine. Me and the others are used to fighting, you aren't. It makes sense."

"Oh. Okay then." Lapis was sure that the others were going to try and talk her out of her decision, but never would have guessed they would sympathize with her. They may not be enemies at this point, make no mistake, but she was not sure how to take such a frank statement. Should she be touched they were letting her make up her mind, or was this a sign they did not want her around? Rather than waste precious time dwelling on an uncomfortable subject, the aqua gem decided to just drop the topic and resumed the duo's decorative pastime. Before long the clock was nearing six and Amethyst led her guest back out to the temple door where Garnet, Pearl and Steven were occupying themselves in Steven's room by watching television.

"Hello, you two. How did your time together go?" asked Pearl.

"It was… alright, actually. Thanks for showing me your stuff, Amethyst," responded Lapis.

"No sweat. Good luck building meep-morps out of moon rocks!"

Lapis could not help but grin as Amethyst ran to the kitchen to make popcorn for the family. As the tasty treat was being microwaved, Lapis made up her mind about whose company to be in.

"Pearl, I choose you next."

**Aaaaaand... Obvious cliffhanger! No joke, this and the next two chapters were originally written as one huge chapter before I broke them up to give some space. Until next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	7. 6 to 9: Pearl

**Part 2 of Lapis actually being social!... That's all I've got...**

The cordial gem walked downstairs and moved to the warp pad, clearly intending for their activity to take in a faraway location. The sun was making its way west outside, but the light was still beaming with only a few clouds offering shade. Lapis was already weighing options on what she could have in mind.

"Lapis, I would like to take this time and show you something. My only concern is how fast you can fly."

That instantly through her for a loop for umpteenth time today. "I'd say pretty fast. Considering I flew all the way from here to Homeworld by myself, we could easily reach anywhere here in time. Where do you have in mind?"

"A place that is very precious to me. Normally it is a long hike away from where we'll be warping to, but depending on your speed we can make it with time to spare." Lapis noted how Pearl appeared jittery already, but she could not distinguish if it was from doubt or cheer. Either way, they were wasting time standing around. Seconds later they were in an earthen canyon surrounded on both sides by massive cliffs. Considering the height, Lapis quickly understood why flight would make this trip less strenuous.

"Alright, let's go."

She felt awkward carrying a passenger like her, but also knew it could be tricky following her from the ground. Lapis took to the sky and out of the crevasse and followed Pearl's directions over miles and miles of barren ground. What would take three hours for Pearl on foot flew by in five minutes and soon reached another steep wall. She was stupefied at the pace Lapis was making, who did not even flinch as she banked straight upwards and began flying parallel to the rock face. She quickly spotted the entry to the cave Pearl was searching for and landed. Once inside she could tell it was no ordinary cavern, it somehow remained fully lit despite the waning sunlight and the floor was perfectly smooth. Pearl dismounted and led the way inside until the two came across a massive circular stage in the cave's center. It glowed with light as soon as their feet touched the surface, taking Lapis by surprise.

"What is this place? How do you know about it?" she asked as she stood bewildered by her surroundings.

"This was a secret armory for Rose Quartz, it's been here for thousands of years. Rose herself told me about it. I used to think I was the only one who knew, actually."

Pearl's somewhat stiff demeanor became more so. Her posture was impeccable as she walked to the center of the stage where a single square pedestal bearing the same pattern as Steven's shield stood. Her voice held the unmistakable wonder that came when remembering a fond time in the past mixed with a tinge of sadness. She placed her hand on the pedestal and suddenly a ring of armors from different time periods sprung into existence. Lapis was astounded and tried her hardest to take all of them in at once.

"I wanted to show you something related to the Crystal Gems, since it seems you don't know much about us. What do you think so far?"

The water gem was not sure what to think at this point. The part of her brain that was not absorbing every detail of the armor collection was conflicted. Sure, she knew who Rose Quartz was, but she only recognized the name. At one point she might have hated Rose, being the leader of the group responsible for her imprisonment after all, but now she had no idea. She still had to admit the collection was amazing, and figured Pearl was taking a real risk showing her something so close to her heart.

"This is… incredible. How did she get all of these?"

"Each one of these has a story behind them, but you should know Rose's collection did not just include armor."

As if on command, the armor vanished and was replaced by an equally eclectic line of swords of all shapes and sizes. A line of axes then appeared opposite to the blades, further raising Lapis' curiosity. While she was gawking at every minor detail, Pearl looked on all of them with a small smile.

"I'm glad you find this all so entertaining. I wanted to show you a bit of about our history before you depart. Do you have anything you wanted to ask me?"

With her imagination in overdrive, Lapis happily obliged. "Yes, I do! How did all this start? Why did Rose do all of this? Where… are the rest of you? I know there had to be more than just you three."

Pearl knelt beside the glowing pedestal and put all the melee weapons away with a movement of her hand. She invited Lapis to join her on the ground and breathed in as she collected her thoughts before beginning a lengthy lesson on the history of the Crystal Gems.

"Well, to answer your first question, it all started thousands of years ago when Pink Diamond decided to colonize Earth. Of course, this meant making the original Kindergarten to create her subordinates and among them was Rose Quartz. At first Rose was just like her fellow Gems under Pink Diamond, working to prepare a colony until she began to notice the world around their operation…"

Pearl never wavered despite the glut of information she was giving. She went on to describe Rose trying in vain to reason with her diamond, forming an underground rebellion with those also dissatisfied with the hierarchy of Homeworld, and how she came to be the most feared gem ever created. She also mentioned how she, a pearl abandoned by her original owner, came into the fray and learned all she could under Rose's empowerment and compassion. Lapis hung onto every word and became stupefied at how much toil and triumph went into Pearl's story. She may have been familiar with war, but speaking to a longtime veteran put the entire event into perspective. Pearl only stopped when Lapis asked the occasional question or asked for clarification and by the end of the tale, their time was almost over. The moon was now climbing the sky above the cave but all the two were concerned about was the saga of Rose Quartz. When Pearl finally finished, she realized there was one last piece of business she had to take care of with the aquatic gem.

"Lapis, I'm sorry for what happened to you."

"What? Why are you…" she started, clearly confused, but Pearl motioned to let her finish.

"I may not be the one responsible for you being in that mirror for so long, but I wish it did not take thousands of years to set you free. You were innocent the whole time and I'm sorry if one of my old friends hurt you. You never deserved any of this. I figured you were owed a formal apology after all this time."

Lapis was taken aback by her frankness, but greatly appreciated the gesture. "Thanks Pearl. I guess I didn't help matters by assuming you were all bad. Maybe I could have spoken up earlier and then things would have turned out differently."

"Perhaps," Pearl shrugged as the pair walked back towards the entrance, "But as much as I remember the past fondly I prefer focusing on the present." They both smiled at that thought as Lapis once again took to the sky with a passenger on her back. As they flew, a question came to Pearl as she was being flown back home.

"Lapis, by any chance do you know who originally put you in there?"

Lapis slowed down as she tried to recall the painful memories. "No. I was poofed by some gem and then a Homeworld soldier put me in there. I actually don't remember much before I came to Earth… All I know is that the gem who poofed me was big, purple and had really weird multicolored hair."

The rest of their nighttime flight was in silence as Pearl mulled over the possibilities in her mind. She knew someone who matched the description but could not decide if she would do something so needlessly violent. Then again…

"Pearl, are you alright? We're here."

The slender gem snapped back to reality and realized they were on the canyon warp pad once again.

"Oh, sorry. I was just lost in thought. Let's go back." So, they did and returned to the beach house as nine o'clock was closing in fast. Steven was pleased to see the two.

"Hey guys! Garnet's waiting outside for you, Lapis."

Before her guest walked off, Pearl shook her hand and wished her a fond farewell. "Well, I hope you enjoyed our little trip. Have a safe journey, Lapis Lazuli."

**And this leaves just Garnet! Stay tuned for next week where... I have some better intros and outros. **

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	8. 9 to 12: Garnet

**And now the thrilling conclusion!... Of social bonding. Yay?**

Lapis was surprised how accepting all of them were with her decision, but she appreciated the hospitality. It did, however, have the unfortunate side effect of making her second guess herself. If they were this friendly to her…

_"No! I'm going and that's final!"_ she yelled to herself. Trying to look nonchalant, she walked outside for her final bonding session of the evening, but not before glancing at the massive portrait of Rose above the doorway. After admiring the artwork, she walked onto the porch where Garnet was calmly admiring the night sky in one of the patio chairs.

"Good evening, Lapis. Take a seat." She greeted and gestured to the chair next to her. Lapis obliged and wondered what the fusion had in store for her. She followed Garnet's gaze up to the night sky and took in the serene sight of stars and the waxing gibbous moon above the gently lapping waves.

"So, what exactly are we doing?" asked Lapis after several minutes of scenery watching in relative silence.

"This, unless you'd rather do something else," replied Garnet.

Lapis merely shrugged and went back to stargazing. She had to admit that after six hours of almost constant excitement, it felt very soothing to simply stop and smell the roses one last time. As time kept passing, though, she felt the desire to speak her mind.

"Garnet… you're the one in charge right?"

"Yes."

"How do you do it? Doesn't it bother you having so much on your shoulders?"

Garnet chuckled at the thought. "Sometimes it gets to be too much. I must admit there have been times I've fallen apart, but I have to look ahead and realize that the stress will pass. Although it does help to be able to do that literally…"

"Wait, what? You mean you can see the future?!" This caught both Gems by surprise.

"Huh… I suppose I never did tell you that. Yes, Lapis, I have an ability called future vision which lets me see possible outcomes to various problems."

"That's fantastic! You can see if Homeworld is coming or not! Are they coming soon? Will they be looking for me? Do you see me staying or going? I just have to know now!" exclaimed Lapis, eager to have some clarity in her conflict, but Garnet just stood there deciding how to let her down gently.

"Lapis, it doesn't work that way. I can't see everything and just because something _can_ happen does not mean it _will_ happen. Besides, knowing the future isn't always a blessing." Garnet became uncomfortably quiet on that last line, almost as if she was talking more to herself than her guest.

Said guest was not taking the news well. "Oh, okay then. I guess that makes sense." Lapis tried to turn away, but then Garnet placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back around.

"I know that isn't what you wanted to hear, but let me tell you what I told Steven when he learned about it. You see, he started asking me about every possible way something could go wrong. He became so terrified something was going to happen to him that he couldn't live anymore. And even worse, I knew this could happen if I told him the truth. But that's when I told him I could see many things that can hurt him and I never should have let one of them be me. There are millions of possibilities for the future, but it's up to you to decide which one becomes reality. Lapis, you choose your own future."

This brightened Lapis' mood, especially that last line about choosing her own future. Although that did raise doubt in her mind about her impending departure, she let it stew in her mind while she and Garnet observed the stars in peace. Occasionally the fusion would point out a constellation in the distance, but the remaining hours passed in peace. It was not long before the half moon was climbing to the highest point, signaling it was time to say goodbye. With their last minute upon them, Garnet and Lapis simply stood up and shook hands without saying a word to each other though their respective smiles showed them leaving on good terms. They walked back inside surprised to find Steven fighting to keep himself awake on his bed.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" He had to repress a massive yawn, but refused to sleep until everything was said and done.

"It's fine Steven. I really want to thank you for this whole idea."

"No problem, buddy. Is it alright if I see you off, though?"

The water gem nodded and the two walked to the warp pad while Garnet went to get Pearl and Amethyst to see their fellow gem off as well. When they returned to the barn, Peridot was found inside with several pages of paper scattered around her feet. Pumpkin was merely watching as the mechanical gem tried every logical notion to sort out her feelings but very few met with any success. It seems even her intellect was no match for the befuddling power of pathos.

"Peridot, are you doing something important?" asked Lapis.

"Lapis! I was just… preparing a proper inventory to make sure we have all the essentials before a prolonged period of space travel. Since we have no set destination in mind and though we do not need as many supplies, I would like to be certain none of our possessions are left behind. For one thing, I've made sure we have our entire cassette collection before-"

"Peri, stop right there. I've had a really great day with the Crystal Gems and-" she interjected before being interrupted by the Crystal Gems themselves arriving via warp stream.

"Good thing your still here. We wanted to make sure we saw you leave," said Garnet.

"I mean, how many times do you get to see a barn blast off into space by a water pad? You can't make this stuff up!" laughed Amethyst.

"We feel it's only proper given how open we've all been with you today. So, do you need help preparing your belongings for take-off? I happen to know several procedures for this sort of operation thanks to my aeronautical research," said Pearl.

Lapis just stared at all three of them in shock. "You're all willing to do this after a few hours with me? We had barely spoken to each other before now."

"Don't be surprised Lapis. We're your friends, of course we'd want to make sure everything you want goes well!" said Steven. That final bit edged whatever debate was left in her mind. The flighty gem's mind was finally made up.

"You know, with all of you here so willing to give me a chance, I should be willing to do the same. Maybe I should sta-"

She never got to finish that sentence. A harsh yellow light broke through the peaceful air and beamed down on all six of them. Pumpkin ran to the barn in fear and quivered under the nearest crevice. All of them looked up and saw the two roaming eyes looming above them, having been thrown off by the interruption by their target entering the warp stream. Now they had arrived and sighted Rose Quartz.

**Aaah, there's some more excitement! Now I have a REAL cliffhanger to make you all impatient with. HAHAHAHAHA! Tune in next time for an ACTUAL exciting conclusion!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	9. Raising the Stakes

**And now for the climax...of this story arc. (Cue Bayonetta Music!)**

Time seemed to stop for the Crystal Gems under the roaming eyes. The two ships surrounded the group on both sides, airborne and gazing down on the six. While most of the group was ready for a fight, Lapis was struggling just to remain calm. This was part of her worst fears coming to pass right in front of her. The tension was finally broken when a high-pitched voice began barking from one of the eyes, although it sounded noticeably forced.

"Attention Rose Quartz! We have been directly ordered by Homeworld to bring you into custody for your transgressions against the Diamonds! Surrender peacefully or you and your comrades will be forced to cooperate." All of the gems recognized the voice a ruby, but something felt noticeably off about her voice.

"Are… are you reading from some kind of script?" asked Peridot.

"...That's…classified," the ruby responded after a VERY uncomfortable pause. It is a shame that they did not get to see said ruby hurriedly scrolling through dozens of text prompts that Homeworld enforces them to use in these high-level missions. It may have even made Lapis smile in the midst of being terrified for her very existence.

Steven stepped forward, feeling rather responsible for this meeting. "I've promised these Gems I'm not leaving Earth again. So you can just take your ships off this planet now!"

After a few more seconds of scrolling, the captain of the other ship took over in a much more natural tone. "Very well, then. Since you have denied your one peaceful opportunity to cooperate, we will have to use force!" At least this one did not sound she was reading from a prompt…

The invading rubies quickly followed through on their threat as the ships shut the blinding light off, landed, and each dispensed six eager looking rubies. Though each of them was shorter than Steven, all twelve of them had a murderous gleam in their vision spheres aimed right at the young boy. They summoned their respective weapons of knives, gauntlets, and one even wearing a set of brass knuckles on both of her hands. The main Crystal Gems all brought out their respective weapons, Steven sticking with his usual shield (just because he could summon the other weapons did not mean he could properly use them) and Peridot stood her ground while Lapis was paralyzed with fear. The only thing stopping her from flying away at this moment was her inability to feel anything but numbing terror on every inch of her body.

The rubies tried to circle them, but Steven just bolted through them with his shield to break their formation. With them distracted, the other Gems sans Lapis took the opportunity and advanced, each taking multiple of the diminutive adversaries. Peridot had to contend with two at once, but quickly managed to pull a several metal tools from the barn floor with her metal powers.

"Alright, you little clods," she exclaimed, levitating half a dozen pieces of hardware, "Which one of you wants to get hammered?" It is only a shame Peridot did not know enough of Earth slang to realize her choice of words.

The rubies scoffed at first, but quickly regretted making light of this threat as the tools bombarded them. Every time the tiny troops tried to smack the pieces into oblivion with their gauntlets, Peridot shifted them around to prepare another attack. She had managed to create a literal swarm of tools and was keeping the two preoccupied. Lapis was definitely impressed, at least as much as she could be given her emotional turmoil, but still took the opportunity to run to the safety of the barn while the battle spread around the countryside.

Steven was being pursued by a pair of rubies. Unlike that behemoth from the arctic, he knew tripping these two up would be a taller order. His speed may have been great, but his stamina and nerves were not holding out. He then turned on a dime and flung his shield directly at his pursuers, but they both ducked underneath it. Right as the two charged at his, knives at the ready, he conjured a bubble shield causing the duo to rebound. With them stopped in their tracks Steven stood tall, dispersed the protective sphere around him, and brought forth a new shield, ready to stand his ground since talking was clearly out of the question.

Each of the main Crystal Gems had three of the buggers to contend with, but all of them found ways to handle being outnumbered. Pearl was using her superior agility and flexibility to make hitting her a fruitless exercise, only made worse by the rubies' remarkably short temper. Amethyst was literally running circles around them with her spin dash and tying them up with her whip. In spite of the obvious danger in front of her, she was still smiling at seeing the little nuisances getting flung into each other like bowling pins and screaming for her to stand down. As if. Garnet, naturally, was owning her confrontation with her future vision. She knew every strike the rubies would make before they could move, and silently countered every maneuver they pulled. She even saw the three trying to fuse together to boost their odds, but Garnet simply charged right at their formation sending the trio flying in different directions.

* * *

As the chaos reigned outside the barn, Lapis Lazuli was holding a quivering Pumpkin, both terrified by all the commotion and the prospect of a small Homeworld invasion. The gem inside was in a mix between terror that her worst fear was playing out right before her eyes and kicking herself for wasting so much time here when she could have been flying away from this oncoming madness.

_"Why did I agree to spend so much time here?! I should have flown away when I had the chance!"_ She could only scold herself and watch the scattered brawls go on in the dead of night, praying that the Homeworld Gems would retreat or just surrender though the latter felt as likely to her as Steven committing arson for laughs. She wished there was some way she could help, but she could barely move an inch. She found herself looking at the floor, where she spotted one of Peridot's papers she worked on while she was gone…

* * *

Minutes passed as the rubies relentlessly fought the assembled Crystal Gems, all growing more desperate since their superior numbers were failing to the rebels' tactics and unorthodox fighting methods. Their tenacity was beginning to prevail, however, as they started using pattern recognition to gain an advantage over their opponents. Rubies may have highly underdeveloped intelligence, but they were all soldiers designed with the ability to whittle down opponents.

Steven, already drowsy from how late it was, was quickly losing steam as the two rubies continued to attack him. His mostly defensive style may have surprised them at first, but they were now pushing down on him with constant attacks and breaking through his guard. The adrenaline of the fight could only carry him so far and finally his defenses fell and one of the Gems landed a brutal hit to his face leaving him on the ground with a sore jaw.

"Steven!" yelled Garnet, briefly forgetting her opponents. Unfortunately, this gave the rubies enough time to pile on to each other and fuse into a singular gem that stood ten feet tall with three gems adorning her body. Garnet had no choice but to face the bigger threat and hope Steven could catch a second wind or someone could lend him a hand. Pearl and Amethyst were also distraught seeing their friend fall and rushed over letting their combatants follow. Soon a total of eight rubies surrounded the two desperate Gems, each of them fired up to defend Steven no matter what.

Peridot was actually still on top of her opponents, but was showing notable strain from using her abilities for a prolonged period of time. She kept inventing new patterns to throw off her foes, grabbing new tools to throw into the mix and throwing the occasional cutting remark to keep her foes too angry to develop a plan. She was counting on the other Gems intervening once they finished their respective brawls, but analyzing the circle of Gems on one side of her and Garnet squaring off against a grunt larger than her on the other put the situation into her perspective. With no backup coming anytime soon, Peridot needed to come up with a new plan. This would have to wait, however, since in the midst of her brainstorming the two finally knocked away her screwdrivers and hammers and socked her in the face at the same time.

"OW! My vision spheres!" she cried, realizing her plan would now involve a lot more direct combat which has never been her strong suit.

"You may have some new abilities because of this planet, but that won't save you or the other rebels! Now you can come quietly or we'll force you!"

The scientific gem knew she would never survive back on Homeworld as a full-blown traitor and affiliate to the only group to ever defy the Diamonds. So that left her with only one option; get on all fours and run away in the opposite direction while screaming at the top of her metaphorical lungs.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed as she scampered for her life, the two rubies completely unsure of what to make of her scene.

"Should we… chase after her? She stopped attacking us after all," asked one of the rubies.

"Nah, we're here for Rose Quartz, remember?" reminded her comrade, "Let's go help the others and then we'll get the peridot."

As the red menaces joined their allies in the fray against the other rebels, Peridot ran into the barn only to bump right into an irate Lapis, who was somehow managing to look ready to cower in a corner and slap someone senseless at the same time.

"Peridot, what is this?!" she asked, holding up a paper her barn-mate had written during her time away.

"It is the first page of a personal account of my emotions regarding your plan to evacuate Earth. I compiled it along with several essays detailing possible locations for refuge unlikely to be on Homeworld's radar, several charts and diagrams I made beforehand to fully determine my sentiments to make an informed decision, and a handful of crossword puzzles which I did to relieve stress. Why are you bringing this up now?!" she asked, clearly wondering where Lapis' priorities were.

"I read through this account and the gist of the thing is you're not leaving?! When were you going to mention this?"

"How about AFTER we're not being invaded by a gang of Homeworld grunts?!" she yelled, disbelieving how this was coming up NOW of all times.

The aquatic gem stared at the fight ahead. Despite being outnumbered twelve to four, the Crystal Gems were still holding their own. Steven had even caught his second wind and was acting as crowd control with his shield.

"The other Gems have it handled, but I need to know this. Are you staying on Earth or not?"

Peridot saw the answer Lapis wanted in her expression, she desperately did not want to be alone in space with no one but Pumpkin for company. As she remembered the battle behind her, however, she could not bring herself to be dishonest.

"Lapis, I've officially been a Crystal Gem for months now. I cannot just abandon the cause I've signed up for after all this time. This is my home and if Homeworld wants to create problems here, then it is my responsibility to stop them. I am sorry for this, Lapis Lazuli, but I refuse to go with you."

Heartbroken could not even describe how Lapis felt hearing those last words. Here she was thinking she at least had one gem behind her. She knew Steven and the others would stay, this was their home for years now, but she thought Peridot was in the same position as her; a refugee looking to lay low in case Homeworld came around. It seems all this time had changed her, however, and now Lapis was the only one not willing to engage in such an uphill battle.

Without another word Lapis took out her wings and soared into the air, summoning all the water from the lake to surround and lift the barn behind her. She shut her eyes, hoping to drown out the fight still dragging on beneath her and to avoid looking back. Instead it only made it easier for her to hear Peridot, screaming as loud as possible from dozens of feet below her.

"Fine! Just go then! If you're so willing to abandon everyone who cares about you then leave! I spent hundreds of years on Homeworld, Lapis! I know this isn't an easy conflict to win! For all I know it may be impossible, but my sentiments are with Earth for however long I can keep this world safe from them!"

Lapis hovered in midair, the barn trailing a few feet below her on a floating ring of water. The fighting on the ground had ceased as they noticed the now airborne barn. Even the rubies stood still, utterly stupefied by what was going on. The flying gem tightened her fists as all the anxiety in her came to the surface.

"I already told you I don't want to get caught in another war!" she screamed, water now pouring from her eyes. "Every time something like this comes along, I just get used for someone else's benefit! I'm tired of all the chaos! You think I'm _happy_ doing this?! I love this planet, even after all the pain I've been through! But I hate being the victim even more… That's all I've been for so long."

Steven wanted to leap into the air to comfort his ailing friend. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl all had words stuck in their throats, all of them wanting to say something, anything, to calm her down. Peridot, however, had her own retort for Lapis.

"THAT IS THE DUMBEST REASONING YOU COULD POSSIBLY HAVE, YOU CLOD! You honestly think you're helpless?! Is that some kind of joke, because if so your humor is beyond comprehension! I'm not sure if you are aware of your own abilities because by all accounts you are FAR more dangerous than almost anything Homeworld can throw at you! You possess the ability to control any and all water, which makes up the _majority_ _of this_ _entire world_! You created a tower stretching farther than the atmosphere with almost no effort! You restrained an immensely powerful fusion by yourself and kept it contained for months! You're holding several tons in the air _right now _without even trying! How STUPID can you possibly be in this situation? Lapis, you shouldn't be scared of Homeworld. _Homeworld_ should be scared of _you_!"

Lapis Lazuli's mouth could have reached the ground had her form physically allowed it. Her entire body went slack, and her wings flapping were the only sign she had not lost consciousness. Peridot's scolding words sunk into her brain and the fearful haze crowding her thoughts began to clear, but the green firebrand was not done.

"Let me make one matter clear. I understand your previous incapacitations were all caused by circumstances outside your control. From what I've heard, you were ambushed by an overzealous Crystal Gem and then put in the mirror. When you protested your case on Homeworld, no one listened to your pleas out of stubbornness. When you first returned to Homeworld, you were brought along as an informant against your will. With the entire Malachite incident, you chose to act as you did out of a selfless desire to stop Jasper and only broke after months of unrelenting mental anguish. But now is a different set of circumstances. In those instances, it was someone else making you the victim. Here it is squarely _you_, Lapis. I in no way blame you for the past, Lapis. That would be so illogical that the only proper reaction to that theory would be to repeatedly slam my head into the nearest hard surface until that pain was greater than that stupefying idiocy on display. I will blame you for this one, however. Now you are assuming you are the victim when, as you are proving right now, you have little reason to fear Homeworld could harm you. So, are you going to force yourself into the same role you claim to despise so much? Or are you going to change your position to something more your liking?" Peridot crossed her arms and stared above her, waiting for the decision.

The Crystal Gems and the Homeworld rubies were all silent under the moonlight and the growing shadow of the lifted barn as the flying Lapis was lost in thought. The more Peridot's words sunk into her system, the harder it was to feel anything other than her own turmoil. The fear of Homeworld's wrath was still yelling at her to leave only now it was met by protests that demanded her to take action. After everything she had been through today, all the emotional growth and regression that the past several hours had delivered, Lapis Lazuli made her final decision. She raised her hands, signaling the barn to fly above her. Everyone's eyes were glued as she stayed motionless, eyes closed and arms outstretched. Her face was the picture of stoicism, devoid of all emotion. Then she flung her arms towards the ground and-

A thunderous crash rang out. The barn and the watery platform supporting it slammed straight into the rubies' ships, destroying them under a mountain of assembled junk and several thousand gallons of liquid. The entire assembly was floored, jaws reaching for the dirt and hands slack. The only one unaffected by the air of bafflement was Peridot, who bore her typical smug smile that followed when her theories proved correct.

With their transportation and only means of contacting reinforcements gone, the assembled rubies felt all the fire fade. They were completely stranded here. At the very least there were no more protocol to study as one of the rubies, one of the pilots of the now demolished vessels, acted in a rather undignified manner.

"EVERYONE RUN AWAY!" The circle of rubies broke apart in a frenzy, forgetting their weapons and fearing that the same gem was going to pulverize them too. The Crystal Gems, after recovering from the shock, used their panic to their advantage and quickly began pursuing them. Each of them darted off, poofing their frenetic opponents with ease as they made a hasty getaway. Some may call it dishonorable to attack an opponent who laid down their weapons, but the group was not going to press their chances considering what happened the last time a group of these undersized soldiers were left to their own devices. One by one the rubies were shield-bashed, speared, whipped or punched back into their respective gems and bubbled by one of the four, who were all relieved that this nighttime skirmish was finally over.

Lapis Lazuli, despite being the hero of the hour, was still flying with a disoriented expression as if even she was not aware of her actions. She slowly descended back to Earth, her expression never changing as what she had done sunk in. The other Gems, however, were kind enough to remind her.

"Lapis, that was incredible! You saved us!" cheered Steven, holding a pair of pink bubbles containing rubies.

"I must say, that was rather unorthodox but highly effective. With no way to reach Homeworld, they completely panicked. We greatly appreciate the help," added Pearl, holding three rubies in translucent white orbs.

Amethyst and Garnet both beamed at her, each holding three rubies of their own. Peridot merely walked over to her companion, noticing the rather distant expression she had, and patted her on the back regardless.

"Lapis, do you know what this means?"

"…It means I have to wear a star somewhere, right?"

The others all laughed at her response, but also realized that the gem was going to need some time to adapt to this change. As for Lapis herself, she was one part giddy to have assisted all the Gems she had come to appreciate this day and anxious that now Homeworld really would put a target on her back.

**And with all that said done, Lapis and Peridot stay on Earth this time! Which means of course I get the blatant excuse to write more of two of my favorite characters being hilarious. Come back next time where the new Crystal Gems settle in.**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	10. Settling In

**Time to wind down after an action sequence with everyone's favorite artists moving in with the main group! **

As the six Crystal Gems all stared at the mass of wreckage that was two roaming eyes and the barn, all of them were glad peace was restored for the moment. All of them, especially Lapis, felt a grim warning that the forces of Homeworld were not done here. Even Steven, somehow still standing despite his body begging for sleep, could tell this was far from a conclusive ending. At that moment, however, he was also overjoyed by another revelation.

"Lapis is staying on Earth!" he cheered, hugging the nervous gem's legs with the purest expression of glee all over his face.

She showed him a smile, but the hesitation was apparent in her eyes. She could still fly away if she wanted to, just take off without any physical baggage to weigh her down. Emotional baggage, however, was keeping her planted for the moment.

"Well, if that is the case I would like to present a new conundrum in light of these events," said Peridot, "While Lapis here has successfully stranded the rubies and prevented us from being captured, she has created a problem here due to her method of destroying their transport."

All of them turned as Peridot stomped over to the pile of debris and shouted in a frothing rage "She destroyed our home! Where on Earth are we supposed to live?!"

Garnet had the answer. "Our bathroom is available."

With little other option, the two of them left their old home a soaking pile of rubble as they departed along with an excited Pumpkin for their new apartment. Garnet took hold of Steven who finally passed out from fatigue and the need for sleep and warped off with their two new house guests.

* * *

Another pleasant day in Beach City, another day for Steven to relax from the latest batch of insane circumstances that was his life. Still, the ever-optimistic Steven woke with a smile ready to make the most of the day. As he stepped out of bed with the intent to fully rouse himself with a hot shower. He happily hummed a tune to no one in particular as he trudged to the bathroom where he found Peridot marching around the small room while Lapis was snoozing in the tub.

"Oh hey, Peridot! How do you like your new home?" he asked jovially, yet keeping his voice down to not disturb the dormant blue gem.

"Well, as much as we both appreciate the hospitality, we've both become accustomed to having more activities to occupy our time."

"Huh?"

"She means we're bored," said Lapis, awoken thanks to Peridot's lack of an indoor voice, "No offense Steven, but there's nothing to do in here without messing with your stuff."

The snappy youngster put on his thinking face, listing through all the options for entertainment he could imagine. When the answer came to him, his face lit up with glee.

"I know just the thing!" He opened the door for the two to follow him outside. Peridot gladly took the opportunity while Lapis was ready to doze off again, but could never hope to disappoint Steven. She trudged into the main room where she saw him and Peridot on the edge of his bed with the former turning on some device near his television. By the time Lapis walked up, he was inserting a small disc into the top of some purple cube with Peridot inspecting the small package that housed the disc.

"'Super Bash Sisters Fracas?' Is this some sort of combat simulator?" Lapis was now intrigued as the screen displayed a short cutscene showing the game's roster of twenty-six characters to an epic song.

"It's called a video game, Peridot. This one is all about fighting, but not all of them are. In this game, each of you pick a character and try to beat the other one up until they get knocked out of the arena. Trust me, it's more fun than is sounds!"

"This doesn't actually hurt us, does it?" asked a nervous yet fascinated Lapis.

"No, it's all fake. Just don't take this game too seriously like some people do. For some reason, there are people online who refuse to play any of the other games and insult anyone who does."

"Are the later ones better?"

"Well they keep adding new characters, making new things to do, fixing bugs and glitches, and generally, yeah, they keep making the game better."

"If that is the case then this group is utterly foolish," remarked Peridot, "Why would you shun something that is clearly improving with each installment for an outdated model?"

"Nostalgia mostly. I wouldn't mind, but they act like jerks about it. Anyway…" Steven handed them each one of the controllers and began guiding the two how to handle the ins and outs of the game. Leaving them with the instruction manual to answer any questions they had, Steven was ready to take his shower with the peace of mind that his two friends had something to entertain themselves with.

* * *

Steven, grateful to have no more urgent business on his plate, was thrilled to just spend a day with Connie now that the rift between them was healed. They spent the day roaming around town together, conversing with a few of the locals, heading to the library to look at any new books Connie was interested in, and enjoyed a nice meal on the boardwalk followed by a round at the arcade. The two returned to Steven's place to find Peridot and Lapis exactly where Steven had left them; sitting on the edge of his bed with controllers in hand. It was apparent that the two were quickly mastering the game's combat system as they were clearly in a furious match. Peridot had chosen Zenith Ares, a galactic bounty hunter who fended off foes with a high-tech suit of power armor for her main and seemed to prefer long-range combat and items for combat. Lapis had gone the other route and chose Princess Hilda, a magic user who could also change into an alternate ninja-esque form called Shah with a strategy of switching between the two to disorient her opponent.

The Gems paid the jam buddies no mind as they battled each other, already pulling off combos and dodges with their virtual fighters. When the timer elapsed, Hilda was declared the winner causing Peridot to start jumping in fury.

"You and that stupid wave-dashing! I was inputting the exact same commands as you and Zenith moved a different distance than Hilda, messing me up every time! What is this game's malfunction?!"

"Wave-dashing has a different distance for each character. It doesn't show up in any other game…" Steven murmured.

"Well, at least you two seem to be getting along," said Connie, eager to see her fellow Crystal Temps still around after Steven told her about yesterday's events over pizza. Before many words could be exchanged, Pearl warped in looking for Steven only to be startled by the gathering.

"Well, hello everyone. Sorry to interrupt anything, but I need Steven for his new weapons training."

"'New weapons training?' What does she mean?" asked Connie.

"Why don't you all come to see for yourself?" asked Steven, "Can they come watch, Pearl?"

"I see no harm in it. Besides, I think you will all be very impressed by this. Garnet and Amethyst are already waiting at the sky arena." Pearl departed, thinking an audience will help the up-and-coming fighter with working under pressure. Steven happily bounded ahead with Connie closely following behind, eager to see the new regiment. Peridot, curious as always, was next solely out of a desire to see this phenomenon and not at all because Lapis beat her in the last five matches. That left the wary Lapis in a peculiar situation of either attending some unknown, unexpected function or be left alone in a room for who knows how long with everyone wondering where she is. Not feeling comfortable with either committing such rudeness or being left alone, she reluctantly followed along and soon all of them were whisked away to the floating arena. The three spectators all took a seat among the many rows while Steven stood in the center of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, the last of whom was acting as the main teacher.

"Alright Steven. Let's start with you summoning each of our weapons."

Steven nodded and focused on the shape of Pearl's spear. After a few seconds of concentration, he held a smaller pink replica of the spear much to the amazement of the crowd.

"Whoa! Steven, when did you learn to do that?!" inquired Connie.

"When I was being chased by a giant corrupted gem in the arctic."

The young bookworm just shrugged. "Huh, that's a new one for him."

Peridot was also fascinated. "Well, it appears his unique human-gem physiology is granting him a few advantages. No offense to your species, but considering all the drawbacks such as needing nourishment and rest it seems fitting to earn some benefits."

"Being human also makes him more emotional. Emotional enough to turn a heartless scientist into a lover of soap operas, right?"

"Fair enough…" squeaked the now much less snappy Peridot. Lapis kept quiet with her eyes focused on Steven as Pearl led him through summoning Garnet's gauntlets and Amethyst's whip before moving on to the next lesson.

"Nicely done, Steven. Now it will take you some time to learn to use these new weapons efficiently. We'll get to some basics of each of our arms later. For now, let's focus on your abilities with the shield."

"You did pretty good against those rubies, but you need to stay fresh. Can't get too comfy fighting off runts forever," Amethyst added while pulling out her own whip.

Garnet threw in her two cents after summoning her gauntlets. "You need to learn to defend against different styles of combat. Learn to adapt and change your moves based on the situation."

Pearl took over once again. "Exactly. We'll start coming at you one at a time and switching places to keep you guessing. Now Steven, if you get overwhelmed, hurt or just wish to stop, just say the word and we'll all immediately halt. Are you ready to begin?"

The vivacious lad brought his shield forth and brandished it with a smirk to show his readiness. Pearl responded by launching forward with her spear pointed right at the shield's insignia. It was easily blocked, but allowed Pearl to use the momentum leap backwards giving Amethyst time to launch a crack at his back. Steven heard the oncoming lash and turned to block, but in twisting around he let his posture slip. He caught the birch in time, staggering thanks to the force, but was left wide open for Garnet to charge in fist blazing. Steven leapt to the side to dodge the attack. The towering fusion followed with several more punches and soon a rhythm began to form as Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet rotated positions with Steven holding up remarkably well. The assembled Gems and lady in the peanut gallery were all enraptured by the display. They could see Steven sweating under the pressure, but was quickly taking Garnet's note on adapting to heart as he changed his defenses according to each gem. When Pearl came at him with swift strikes and agile movements to dance around his shield, he kept his wall steady and pushed back when she let her guard down. Amethyst's volley of long-range attacks was met with him charging forward through the strikes to close the distance and diminish her range advantage. Garnet's hard-hitting punches were another matter and he used his own agility to jump out of the way, wasting her time and energy on hitting nothing.

Peridot was surprised at how quickly he was picking up the rudimentary patterns of their assault, appreciating how the boy who usually chose emotion over logic was strategizing so effectively. Connie was grand at seeing how far her friend had come, bouncing in her seat the whole time and half-ready to join in with one of Pearl's swords. Lapis… was just struggling to remain seated.

She was somehow perspiring more than the boy in the middle of a combat exercise. Her entire body was tingling with dread watching him bob and weave through every attack. She knew it was all practice, she knew those three cared for Steven more than anyone, knew they would never dream of hurting him, this was all pretend so he'd be ready… for the next Homeworld invasion.

Now her greatest urge was to take off from the elevated arena and soar away from all the chaos she was sure was coming. If the first real invasion took her destroying the barn to stop, what would happen next? Would one of them be hurt? Would Steven and the Gems have to flee town? Would one of them be captured? Imprisoned?! _Shattered_?!

She had to look away from the demonstration before she flew into a full-blown panic. She tried to remember what Peridot had said right as she was about to leave last night; how she does not have to be the victim anymore. She has the power to keep herself and all of these Gems who had opened up to her safe. She could…

A thud and a grunt rang out the arena causing Lapis to open her eyes where she saw Steven, his shield gone and Pearl standing over her with her spear pointed right at him! The poor gem felt a rush of anxiety and fear well up in her. She launched herself out of the stands with her wings before she could stop herself. She charged right into Pearl, sending her sprawling over the edge and plummeting to the ground below screaming in shock. While she could easily float down to safety, the others were more distraught.

"Lapis, why did you do that? This is all training!" exclaimed Steven, trying to split his concern between the falling Pearl and the frazzled Lapis.

"I uh- well I just- I didn't mean to- I just saw her there- I thought you'd- I'm sorry- I didn't- but- what- huh- I'm sorry- I didn't know- I forgot- I'm sorry- I'm sorry- Is she okay- I'm sorry-I'm…"

"Calm down, Lapis. Pearl will be fine," reassured Garnet, placing a hand on her shoulder as her body began shaking, "She should have no trouble breaking her fall. You just made a mistake, that's all."

Lapis could not bear to look her, or any of them, in the eye. All she wanted to do now was curl up in a corner where no one could see her. She did manage to fly down and retrieve Pearl as she was descending towards the ground at a controlled pace. Even Pearl could not hold a grudge seeing her so close to falling apart. Once back on the arena, the group marched back to the warp pad and flew back to the temple with Lapis running straight into the bathroom to cry in privacy.

"Man I knew that gem had issues, but what the heck was that?!" asked Amethyst as the six gathered around the kitchen island. Steven and Connie took two of the bar stools while Amethyst sat on the counter with the others standing, all pondering the same thought.

Connie shared her hypothesis. "Well, she's pretty new here and inexperienced with combat. Maybe it was just too much for her?"

"That would seem likely," agreed Pearl, "I made rash decisions in the heat of battle and that was after millennia of experience! A complete newcomer like her, especially with all the hardship she's been through, could be very easily frightened by all this even if it's fake."

"Yeah, the ruby attack was only yesterday…" said Steven as he drank a bottle of water to rehydrate after training, "She's gonna need time to settle in."

"To be fair, it was only rubies. It's not like they were that much of a threat," remarked Amethyst, before remembering Garnet was standing right next to her. "Eh, no offense…"

"None taken," replied the fusion, "Regardless of what it was, Lapis is not used to stressful situations. She just might not be cut out for this sort of thing. Let's just give her some space and see how she reacts over time."

"Although we never would have gotten all those rubies if it weren't for her," admitted Steven, "Maybe if we remind her of that she'd feel better?"

"Not a bad idea, but we should just let her be for now," suggested Pearl, "We'll address her problems when she's ready. In the meantime, I'd like to say I'm very impressed by your progress today, Steven! Next time we'll focus on using our new weapons, alright?"

With Pearl's encouragement said, their meeting seemed to be over and everyone went their separate ways. Everyone except for Connie, who for the last several minutes was running through what Steven told her about yesterday's ambush and only now found a detail that did not quite fit. Just as he began to walk away, she grabbed his wrist to get his attention.

"Steven, you said there were twelve rubies on those ships right?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"You said you bubbled two of them while Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst got three each right?"

He nodded. Suddenly her eyes widened as the math clicked in her head. "Steven, that's only eleven."

"What?! One of the rubies escaped?!"

The dispersing gems all heard the outcry and rushed back to confirm their suspicions. As Connie added up the numbers in front of them all, they all realized a massive lapse in logic. Before too much panic could emerge from this, Peridot got their attention by levitating several spoons out of the kitchen drawers and banging them on the counter.

"Will you all relax? I understand this is a slightly perturbing development, but let us recall that this is a _ruby_ we are speaking of. Rubies are designed to be grunts low on intellectual capacity and high on persistence and throwing themselves at whatever target their told to hit. Not only is this a single grunt, but said grunt also has no technology to aid in battle, no way to properly contact Homeworld for reinforcements, and does not possess the brain power to develop either of these. They are not all like our Ruby, who has proven to be more insightful than this. Honestly, the only reason one posed a significant threat was that Steven was trapped with it in the vacuum of space in close quarters and he gave away false information giving her a clear motivation to shatter him. In retrospect, this oversight is not a major issue. Odds are that this ruby will either wander aimlessly or it will return out of a petty grudge and it will be vastly outnumbered."

Peridot's speech managed to calm them all down. Garnet in particular was pleased to hear the compliment for Ruby, given their past together, while Steven was turning red at remembering another instance where taking Rose Quartz's identity landed him in hot water. With their fears assuaged, the six Crystal Gems once again dispersed with a newfound sense of relief.

**Next time: Where did our mysterious ruby wander off to? What's Lapis going to do about her serious inner issues? Can I possibly make Peridot any funnier than she already is? Tune in next time to find at least one of the answers!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	11. Earth and Fire

**And now it is time for something completely different: Original gem characters! Enjoy the fruits of my incredibly nerdy labor!**

Miles past the borders of Beach City there was a lone red figure dashing through the forests of Delmarva. Some may have thought it was a child frightened by a fierce predator and was hopelessly lost from her family on a camping trip. That observer would be technically right, but if they actually heard the specifics they would likely raise an eyebrow hearing this was an alien warrior on the run after being stranded on a planet with her entire crew captured by a band of rebels.

This, as you may have guessed, was that lone ruby who managed to evade the Crystal Gems during their skirmish and hightailed it as soon as that flying gem made her presence known. She was one of the two pilots of the now demolished vessels and had been running for several days without rest. The firebrand captain was at a complete loss of what to do other than avoid capture at all costs.

She came to a large clearing in the trees before finally stopping to regain her composure. She was sure no one was pursuing her, but the thought of seeing her entire crew and half a dozen others being wrangled up sent chills down her usually hot-blooded spine. As she stood still for the first time in days, she also felt a surge of anger well up in her. Here she was with no way to leave this useless rock. The best she could hope for was for Homeworld to send a rescue party, but she knew for sure that would never happen. After all, why wait for one ruby to come home when there are thousands still available?

The lone ruby, senses still heightened by the fear of abduction, went on alert when the sound of a twig snapping somewhere in the trees around her.

"Who's there?" she yelled into the distance. A small flame was alight in her right hand. No response came, but she could pick up footsteps among the noises of nature.

"Come out here or I will attack!" Still no reply, the flame in the ruby's hand grew to a fireball the size of a tennis ball.

"Alright then, you asked for it!" She chucked the sphere right between the trees where she last picked up the sound. It detonated, scorching the nearby pines and charring the grass. Within the light, the paranoid could make out a tall shadow begin fleeing away from the impact site. The ruby breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear a bizarre sound coming from somewhere behind her.

The sound… of someone laughing.

"What's so funny?!" screamed the now enraged ruby, already igniting another fireball in her hand.

A piping yet drawling voice answered from the behind the line of trees. "That little flame… it's adorable."

The ruby, now too angry for words, responded by flinging her projectile as hard as possible in the vicinity of the voice. Another small explosion rang out and the figure seemed to dash away, its paces clearly audible to the pint-sized captain.

"Is that really all you have?" asked the voice, now clearly amused yet with a detectable note of boredom in her words, "You can't go any bigger?"

"Why don't you show yourself and say that?!"

In a surprising twist, the owner of the voice emerged. It was another gem, but far and away from any the captain recognized. She was near the height of a pearl, but her physique was bulkier than that of a servant. Her skin was a violent scarlet, with a foot of orange hair standing straight up on her head like the flame of a candle. Her arms and legs were well-toned would remind a person like a marathon runner. Her outfit, in human terms, would be a tank-top that left her arms and stomach exposed to the elements and a pair of shorts that stopped at her knees with nothing on her feet. Her revealed midriff also held her gem, a bright red stone in the shape of perfect circle. Unlike the rest of her, her coverings were all pitch-black like charcoal except for a pale-yellow diamond on the neckline of her top and the waistline of her shorts.

What worried the ruby most was her expression. This new gem looked down on her, not just from the height difference. She literally saw her as beneath her. And her face seemed uncannily familiar…

"There. I'm here. Do you have anything better to show me now?" she piqued, a detached smile forming on her face.

The ruby fumed and snarled as she charged a third fireball, pushing it to the size of a baseball, and shoved it right into the new gem's core. The ball of flame met its mark and burst right on her gemstone, but the unknown gem did not flinch. In fact, she began laughing even harder as if it tickled her.

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" roared the now thoroughly-enraged captain, the grass underneath smoking to prove her point.

This new eem only laughed harder at this display before suddenly silencing herself and raising one of her arms in front of her. She pointed straight ahead of her before lowering her finger down towards the ruby's hair.

"Let me show you what _real _fire looks like…"

A fireball of her own, already larger than any the captain conjured up, shot out of her finger. The captain ruby dodged with a yelp but already there were more heading her direction. She frantically ran in circles and zig-zags, now screaming in terror as this incendiary gem torched everything in sight with the same smug smile on her face.

In only seconds the entire clearing was an inferno as the trees around them were set ablaze. Thankfully neither of them were susceptible to smoke inhalation or fatal burning or else they would have been swallowed by the flames. The taller gem turned her balls of fire into a continuous stream of flame, still using only her pointer finger, and began torching every tree as the rub fled into the thick of the woods in a panic. The sky was concealed by a blanket of smoke as the wildfire raged on, the ruby blindly dashing as far away from the psychotic gem she encountered. She could barely see past the choking smokescreen and ran headlong into a tree. Despite being relatively safe from the fire, the ruby was terrified as the unknown gem strolled up to her with her stream of fire still erupting from her finger pointing behind her. She was not even aiming at her anymore.

"Do you like it?" she asked, sounding as peaceful as could be among the flames.

Before the captain could stutter a retort or a plea to stop this madness, a rumbling suddenly stopped her train of thought. The sound grew louder, discernable amongst the roaring blaze around them, and another gem erupted from the burning earth.

This new gem has an air of authority around her with a physique that added to her intimidation factor. She was the exact same height as the fire-starter, but far more muscular. She almost had the same thickness of a quartz soldier but lacked the bulk or height. Her skin was a sickly chartreuse in color with pale yellow hair draped halfway to down her back, somehow perfectly straight. She wore what humans would describe as a jacket, one that matched her skin tone at the collar before fading into a murky brown by the ends at her waist that clung to her beefy arms with no apparent way to remove it. Her thick legs were covered by long pants that stopped at her ankles revealing her bare feet. Her gemstone was not visible since it was a pentagon-shaped green stone found on the back of her neck and obscured by her hair.

She did not seem to notice the ruby and was simply glaring at the scarlet arsonist, looking more irritated than frightened.

"Cinnabar, what are you doing?" she spoke with a deeper voice than her flame-happy counterpart but seemed equally bored. "Since when did I say you could set forests on fire whenever you felt like it?"

"Oh, relax Adamite," she scoffed while rolling her eyes like this was humorous, "I was just having fun."

Cinnabar held out her hand and the masses of flames seemed to fly right into her palm where they collected and vanished into her being with seemingly no consequences to the gem. While the fire itself was gone, the one called Adamite shook her head at seeing the massive burns left on everything with some of the trees bearing scorch marks reaching stories up from their roots.

"There. Better?"

"No, not better. You cannot just go around burning whatever suits your interests. It doesn't accomplish anything." She crossed her arms, apparently used to her compatriot making some excuse, but Cinnabar gestured to the ruby still rooted to her spot.

"But I was trying to accomplish something! I was showing this gem what real fire looks like. You should have seen her puny little…" Before she could start taunting the slightly traumatized gem, Adamite rushed over and grabbed the captain by the arm and dangled her in front of her face.

"A ruby, huh? What's a sorry little soldier like you doing so far off of Homeworld?" she asked, looking even more condescending than Cinnabar.

"I'm stuck on this planet because those Crystal Gems wrecked my ship and abducted my crew!" she screamed, her patience long gone after today's chase.

Both of the elemental Gems looked puzzled by this statement. They seemed to vaguely remember hearing the term, but neither of them could put a touch stub on where. The ruby still in Adamite's arm was not amused.

"Let go of me right now! I need to find some way to get to Homeworld and let them know about Rose Quartz…"

That got Adamite's attention. The green gem dropped the ruby on the ground only for a ring of rock tall enough to trap her body sprung up around her in a flash. The captain tried to break free, but the ring was too thick and she could not build up enough momentum for her gauntlet to mean anything.

"Did you say 'Rose Quartz'? The traitorous gem who rebelled against her diamond?" she asked, looking genuinely excited for the first time. Cinnabar seemed to be catching along as she finally appeared to acknowledge what was happening.

"Yes! That Rose Quartz got captured and sent to Homeworld to face punishment for her crimes, but then she escaped so I and another ship of rubies were sent to scout for her. We were going to apprehend her and the rest of her allies when some freaky flying gem demolished our ships!"

"Flying gem?" yelped Cinnabar, now fully alert and actually sounding concerned, "What were her wings like?"

The ruby was thrown off by the statement. "I don't remember! All I remember was she was blue, could fly and used water to move things. Now get this rock off of me!"

The two new Gems stared at each other for some time, mulling over the same thought. It was then that the ruby noticed one bizarre similarity between the two otherwise polarized Gems; their faces were identical. Their eyes, nose and mouth were in the exact same positions. A person may have guessed they were twin sisters with radically different fashion tastes. As she was processing this, a sudden detail come to mind.

"Wait, you want to know about that flying gem?!" she blurted out, seeing a potential way to escape. They both stared at her, clearly interested in her information. "If I tell you what I know, you have to let me go! Deal?"

Cinnabar looked ready to hand her whatever she wanted, but Adamite held her back and simply nodded.

"She looked exactly like you two! Her face was just like yours! Does that help?" Both of the Gems looked stunned by the answer, even Adamite's apparent boredom faded upon hearing it. Even still, the ring of rock did not lower to let the ruby free.

"Adamite, do you think it could be…" tempted Cinnabar, looking half ready to cry. The earthen gem stood up and turned away from her prisoner.

"Where did you see this flying gem?"

"I don't know the name, but it was some open space near a really tiny colony of organic lifeforms!"

"Come on, Cinnabar. We finally have something to do now." The chartreuse gem finally cracked a smile at this news with her pyromaniac partner following behind her.

"Hey!" shouted the still trapped ruby, "What about me?! You said you'd let me go!"

Adamite stopped and, without even looking, caused a massive boulder to rise out of the ground as if by pure thought. It moved without a sound and levitated right over the ruby. She quickly put the pieces together and starting squirming with the hope there was some fault in the rock that would set her free. The huge stone moved higher and higher, Adamite never turning her head while Cinnabar watched with the same detached smile she had when setting the forest ablaze.

"What are you doing?! I thought you'd let me go!"

The boulder stopped near the treetops, nearly a hundred feet in the air. Her expression was as jaded as when she first arrived.

"I am letting you go. You're going into pieces. On the ground."

"WHAT?!" the ruby screamed, the boulder beginning to fall as Adamite's control over it fell and gravity pulled it down.

"You should have been more specific. Homeworld wants Gems to follow orders to the letter, right?"

The stone's velocity grew as it plummeted, the ruby looking ready to bite her way out before fear finally overtook her and screamed as loud as possible before the boulder hit her. The resounding impact and her scream covered up the harsh crackling her gem made as it splintered into shards before being pulverized under thousands of pounds of rock. Adamite and Cinnabar simply walked through the incinerated forest, excited by the prospect of having a mission of their own. It was on their walk that Adamite remembered the term "Crystal Gem" and that only excited her more.

**To paraphrase a comment left for this chapter on AO3: "Now that's how you introduce an OC - Cold-blooded murder!" What will happen with these two rogue gems on the loose? What's happening back at the temple? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	12. Choppy Waters

**So, with some OCs thrown into the mix, let's head back to the temple to resolve some issues there. And now I realize my writing has the tendency to change focus as often as a disco ball...Enjoy the show!**

It took several hours for Lapis Lazuli to emerge from the bathroom following the training outburst that turned her into a nervous wreck. Her fear was less from the thought of actually hurting Pearl, knowing the veteran had seen far worse scrapes in her time. No, her dread came from both her fear of Homeworld (naturally) and letting down the other Crystal Gems. As much as she did not realize it at first, Lapis loved finally standing up for herself and all the new faces she had come to admire over that day of bonding. The smile Steven gave her after she saved them was fresh in her mind. Now here she was being scared over nothing. Some hero she felt like now.

When she emerged she saw all of the other Gems were absent, correctly assuming they returned to the sky arena for more training. The only one present was Connie, calmly doing homework on the coffee table while she waited for her mother to pick her up. It seemed Priyanka was having another late night, but that only gave Connie more time to focus on algebra.

"Hey Lapis," waved Connie, looking up from her paper to give her eyes a rest, "How are you feeling?"

"Embarrassed." Lapis hung her head in shame, but Connie just patted the seat next to her. The gem took her offer and sat, resting her head on her knees.

"Connie, I feel like an idiot. I flipped out over nothing, in front of everyone, just because I'm scared Homeworld will come and do who knows what. I don't feel much like a Crystal Gem now…"

"Why? It's only been one day. When I first learned about all this, I couldn't handle it right away!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Everyone needs time to adjust to a big change like this. I can understand why you're scared; I blew up at Steven for similar reasons. You just need a while to let all this sink in, okay?"

Lapis let her legs touch the floor and leaned back with a slight smile on her face. "Thanks Connie." The young girl returned to her equations while Lapis simply walked outside, once again glancing up at the poster of Steven's mother before stepping onto the porch and observing the waves. The rest of the Crystal Gems warped back in an hour later to find her still standing there watching the coastline in total serenity. They all left her there until the evening when she came in, said hi to everyone, and returned to her spot in the bathroom to sleep over everything that had happened today.

* * *

When Lapis closed her eyes, she was curled up in the bathtub of Steven's house with a rather pleasant state of mind. When she opened them, however, that went away as she awoke in a black void. There was no trace of her room or any of them Gems and panic quickly began to overcome her mind.

"Hello?! Steven, what's happening?" she yelled into the distance, but her voice seemed weak against the dark expanse. Her hopes were lifted when she heard footsteps, only to quickly start backing away when she saw the figure they belonged to: a hulking orange gem with a head of wild white hair and a cruel face she hoped to never see again.

Jasper's face had the same domineering gaze. Her smile was full of malice. "I'll tell you what's happening Lapis. You're coming with me."

Lapis tried to pull out her wings, but they never came. She felt around her back but could not find her gem. Somehow it had been removed from her body. She began frantically searching around for it, wondering how this was all possible.

"Looking for this?"

The pernicious bruiser held up her left hand, where Lapis' now grey gem rested. The frailer flyer was completely baffled, but her remaining courage pushed her onward. She ran straight at her, but suddenly pain racked her entire form. She looked up and saw Jasper squeezing her gem, every push on the stone sending pulses of throbbing pain through her. She knelt and clutched her sides, causing Jasper to stop.

"You are _nothing_, you hear me?!" shouted Jasper, grabbing Lapis by one arm like a doll, "All you are is a pathetic loser who wanted to abandon her comrades. What good are you to anyone?"

"I… Steven… The Crystal Gems… Peridot… they…"

"What, those failures? Don't you know what's happened to them already?"

The blackness was suddenly broken by a series of spotlights, all harsh white with a single object silhouetted in the center. Lapis walked towards them, but stopped dead when she recognized what they were; mirrors. Five hand mirrors identical to the ones she was stuck in. The worse part was on the front of them she could clearly make out the faces of Peridot, Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet's two components. They were shouting, crying for help. Amethyst was literally pounding the glass to no avail. Lapis tried stepping forward, but Jasper put a stop to it by gripping her gem. The helpless Lapis could only watch as a massive figure rose up behind them, everything hidden in shadow except a stern pair of yellow-colored eyes with unnatural irises. She was staring down at her from several stories up. She glanced down at the mirrors beneath and one by one the images faded to nothingness. When they were all dark, they began dousing the space with a never-ending torrent of black water. Lapis did not bother moving as her tears began mixing with the flood which spread along the expanse. She could have done something with all this water, but the pain of watching all her new and old friends die was too much. Jasper, still acting as confident as ever, gripped her shoulder and whispered into her ear.

"Don't worry about those losers. You're mine now…"

Jasper then took hold of the stone and placed it on Lapis' back in its proper place, but not as an act of generosity. Lapis knew exactly what Jasper wanted. She summoned whatever strength she had left and tried to run, but without even moving the other gem stopped her dead in her tracks. Her voice seemed oddly giddy at this development.

"Trying to fight back now? A lot of good that will do you…" She strode forward, Lapis falling onto her knees against her will. And then something happened she never would have imagined; she smiled. She began to laugh as Japer forced her onto the floor, still controlling her through her gem somehow.

"I told you, you are _mine!_" But Jasper stayed right where she was as Lapis' body began to shift right before her eyes. Her skin and gem turned to a shade of turquoise, her size rapidly increasing as her arms and body rippled with muscle. A second set of eyes grew below her own and her legs morphed into another set of arms with a third pair erupting from her sides. Her back half grew bulkier than her front, forcing her to arch her back and carry herself on four of her arms, and her hair grew out into a wild white frizzy mane. The only thing that remained the same was the position of her gem and her voice.

All the while she was still laughing. She felt power erupt from every part of her new body and she loved it. The size, the strength, it was making her giddy to crush anything that got in her way… no, everything that got in _Jasper's_ way. She was Jasper's pet, her sole purpose to obey and serve, destroying anything she was told to with no hesitation unless her master said so. The only other name she knew was her own: Malachite.

Jasper looked pleased as Malachite, despite towering over, and eagerly waited for her first opportunity for her new pet to show off her power. As if on command, a new light shone forth showing a young boy with a pink gem for his navel.

He looked at her with confusion and fear, but that was no concern to Malachite. Her only concern came when her master snapped her fingers and pointed at this strange youth.

"That's Rose Quartz. Destroy her, but not right away. Make it hurt first." Malachite and Jasper shared the same sadistic smile as all the water around them rushed towards their enemy and formed a whirlpool. The young boy tried to shield himself from the onslaught, but was swept away and battered by the intense force. Out of nowhere the cyclone stopped dropping the boy several feet onto his back with a harsh thud. He was soaked from head to toe, bruised from the fall and utterly terrified by the monsters clearly enjoying his suffering.

"Jasper… what did you do to Lapis?" The young boy asked, but the orange brute just laughed at his misfortune.

"There is no Lapis anymore. I admit it's not as good as having the power myself, but now there's no way she can fight back. Isn't that right Malachite?"

"Yes my Jasper!" replied the massive monstrosity, her voice sounding disturbingly enamored to say such a sentence.

With that the boy tried charging forward towards his former friend, but a wall of water surged forth to push him back. He summoned a large pink shield to help him hold is ground, but Malachite just commanded the water around his feet to literally sweep him away in a current. A geyser then launched the boy dozens of feet in the air before another caught him during his fall. He could barely breathe as he was roughly tossed from one water spout to the next with Jasper and Malachite gleefully drinking in his misery.

Even after another rough landing the shield-bearing boy refused to back down, and at one point tried charging right at Jasper. Before he could get close, however, Malachite stomped in front of him with startling speed given her physique and literally roared at him to stay away. When he refused to back down, he was grabbed by the enormous mutated gem and crushed in one of her mighty hands while he squirmed for dear life as his bones began bending under the pressure. Eventually he screamed in agony as sickening cracks rang out from everything as his ribs, arms, legs and everything in between snapped. Satisfied her master was safe, Malachite flung the now broken boy onto the ground. Jasper was very pleased seeing her old enemy finally defeated and helpless before her and her new pet.

With a final snap of fingers, Jasper called for this massacre to end. All of the water from the darkened mirrors flooded forth, molding and freezing into hundreds of icy shards aimed right at her prey. Malachite held her hands high and grinned as the boy gave her one last glance, pleading for the Lapis Lazuli he once knew to come out and save him. Her grin only widened seeing this as she thrusted her hands down, sending the shards flying at him and-

* * *

It was two in the morning at the beach house. Steven was contently snoozing away while Peridot was on his couch reading some library books to learn about human history and technology. Other than her using her metal powers to levitate a flashlight over the pages as she read, it seemed to be a peaceful night with calm weather and everyone resting after a long day.

Then a massive groaning noise and several small explosions tore the calm to ribbons.

As Steven was forced out of bed by the shockwaves, Peridot gripped her flashlight and began scouting the area. Once he managed to get his bearings, Steven ran to the temple only to run into the other gems emerging from Garnet's room.

"Steven, are you alright?!" yelled Pearl, lifting the boy into her arms to check him for injuries.

"I'm fine and the house seems to be too. Maybe it was a really sudden earthquake?"

"I doubt it, Steven. Gems, check everything outside in case there's an intruder. Steven, stay here with me," ordered Garnet, planting herself firmly on the warp pad in case this was the work of a malevolent gem who stayed inside to avoid pursuit. The other Gems returned soon after, though, checking the entire beach for signs of escape.

"Garnet, our search for other Gems was a bust," spoke Amethyst, "But Pearl found something really weird under the house."

"I checked under the porch to see if a gem was hiding until we all evacuated. There wasn't any gem there, but there was something wrong with our water pump."

"Hold on, we have a water pump?" asked Steven.

"Yes, we have a specially installed water pump located under the house in order to fuel the indoor plumbing. We modified it with some special gem artifacts so it would purify seawater to make fresh water for the indoor plumbing."

Steven was briefly starstruck hearing this. "Wow! Where does our electricity come from?!"

"Solar panels," said Garnet flatly, wanting to get back on track, "You said you found something unusual."

"Right, I have no idea how this could have happened shy of a massive malfunction or first-class sabotage and rest assured the system is capable of repairing itself over time but-"

"All the water's gone! It just vanished somehow!" shouted Amethyst. Pearl looked less than amused to be cut off mid-ramble, but the impish purple gem just shrugged under her gaze. "What? Garnet probably wants you to get to the point."

"She's right." As Amethyst silently beamed at calling the shot, Garnet walked over to the sink and opened the cabinet beneath. Much to the collected group's shock, the pipe had completely burst into shards. Pearl placed a nearby bucket under the pipe in case the water returned before the damage was fixed. This only puzzled the five even more until Steven ran to the bathroom to check on Lapis.

"Lapis, are you okay?" he tried knocking on the door, but hardly any sound came. He tried banging on the door as hard as possible, but for all his effort it sounded like he was hitting the door with pillows over his hands.

"Okay, now this is getting weird. By OUR standards," remarked Amethyst as she and the others all gathered around the door.

"Lapis, is everything alright in there?" asked Pearl. She moved Steven aside and tried to open the door herself, but it refused to budge! Even as she started trying to push the door with her entire body it stayed in place. With her quickly devolving into a wreck as irritation and tumult overrode her normally logical mind, Garnet decided to take the more direct approach.

"Lapis, this is Garnet. We are coming in there to make sure that you are safe after those shockwaves. Open the door now or we have no choice but to force our way in." Garnet readied one of her gauntlets and gave the aquatic gem inside thirty seconds to comply. After the time elapsed with no response, Garnet thrust her fist straight into the door which even then remained standing. This was not the end, however, as Garnet punched again and again with her slowly making headway as the door began to tremble and buckle. When the wood finally began to crack, all of them were too preoccupied with the thought of Lapis being in possible danger to notice the bizarre rippling noise on the other side or notice the smell of dampness coming from inside. After several minutes of assault, the door finally broke completely-

And the five were swept away by a miniature tidal wave! With no warning, an enormous rush of water forced all of them away sputtering in shock as the rest of the house was drenched. Steven was left completely dazed, coughing up a fit after swallowing a large gulp of the flood forcing him on the floor by the front door. Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot were all in shock, but otherwise seemed unharmed as they were carried into the kitchen by the wave. Garnet, meanwhile, remained firmly planted in front of the door as strode in to find something that left even her speechless.

There was Lapis Lazuli, hugging herself in a fetal position, rocking herself back and forth on the floor of the bathtub where she went to rest hours ago. Her eyes were clamped shut, streaming tears nonstop and whimpering in fear. The entire room resembled a battlefield, all of the Steven's toiletries were gone as they were carried away by the flood. The sink was smashed on the floor with its pipe in pieces, several tiles where missing from the floor and shower walls, and the showerhead itself was demolished. Garnet walked forward, stupefied by the sight in front of her, and cradled the still weeping Lapis in her arms. She carried her out onto the beach with the other gems close behind.

**You know, I was worried that I couldn't make something genuinely dark before this story? Don't feel that way now! With that nightmare fuel out of the way, tune in next time for some much lighter fare. **

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	13. Boardwalk

**And after that nightmare fuel, let's tone things down a bit with something lighthearted!**

Steven called his father in the middle of the night after the entire place was cleared out. Lapis, after recovering from her panic attack, retold as much as she could without getting too emotional. At first the gem was scared she was legitimately going insane, but Steven and Pearl clarified that it was merely images created by her subconscious that were in no way real. While that soothed her somewhat, Lapis was still shaken to the core by that and the damage she had wreaked on their house. Now they, along with a groggy Greg, were sitting around his van with the music man in the back with his son.

"Well, I had a hunch that the place would get trashed with the magical shenanigans you all get up to in there," he remarked, "But at least everything's still standing. I'll call a crew to inspect it in the morning."

"Thank you, Greg. I'm sorry we had to call you so late, but we figured you should know," said Pearl.

"Well, at least this happened after I got a ton of money to fix it with! And Lapis, try to pinch yourself so you wake up early if this happens again okay?"

The crestfallen gem was sitting on top of the van with her back to everyone. She only replied with a noncommittal grunt. As Steven rode away with his dad to stay with him until the house was deemed safe, the Gems simply sat on the beach (minus Lapis who took to sitting on the roof, still unable to look at them) with nothing in mind to pass the time.

* * *

Steven woke up in his caterpillar sleeping bag to find Greg cooking a deluxe breakfast for two: chocolate chip waffles, microwave bacon and orange juice boxes freshly picked from a cooler. Some of Greg's first purchases after he hit his fortune were to upgrade his mobile kitchen could use an upgrade from more than a single waffle iron.

"Morning, schtu-ball!"

"Good morning dad," smiled Steven, "Has anyone gone by the house yet?"

"Not yet, but they'll get there soon. I took a peek inside and it looks alright, but water damage is no joke." He handed Steven his plate as he shared the news. "Worst case scenario, they have to change the flooring and plumbing. Although, we may need to redo the whole bathroom, I didn't check in there… We'll worry about that when that comes. So, what do you want to do today while that happens?"

Steven was simply looking at his plate, despite his stomach openly protesting. "I don't know… With all that's gone on recently I'm not sure what to expect anymore. All I know is Lapis really needed help before and this whole thing's just going to make her feel worse." The two ate their meal in silence until Greg came up with an idea.

"It sounds like you could all use a break from all the alien invasions and new powers… Why not just have a fun day?"

Steven seemed to lighten up at the thought. "Yeah… We haven't really done anything together since Lapis and Peridot moved in with us. We could all hang out and forget all this Homeworld stuff for a while! That sounds great!"

"Alrighty then, so that's settled! Let your old man take care of home repairs while you and Gems have a day without any worries! Any ideas on what you want to do?"

"We haven't done anything at Funland recently. That could be a fun time!"

"So it's a plan! You spend the day relaxing and I'll make some calls to get the house looked at. I think I'll call Connie first…"

"Wha? How come?"

"Well, I'm sure she'd like to have some time off too, right?"

"You're the best Dad I've ever had!" Steven hugged his old man as he was dialing his bookworm buddy to join in on their festivities. "But wait, do you want come along to? You shouldn't have to do all the work yourself."

"Hey now, I'm the adult! It's my job to worry about renovations and bills and your job to eat funnel cakes and win stuffed animals."

"And save the world!"

"Yeah… that too," Greg put down the phone as Dr. Mahesweran picked up on the other line, looking rather dejected at that last comment.

"Dad? Are you alright? Was it something I said?"

"Huh? Oh no, Steven you're fine. Tell you what, if there's nothing major that needs doing today, I'll swing by and join in on the fun okay?"

"Okay. I'll walk back so you can get started. See you later, daddy-o!"

"Later, son-brero!" Greg waved his son goodbye as Connie got on the phone and gladly agreed to spend the day with the gems. All the while, though, Greg was more relieved than anything to know Steven would be taking a day off from his usual routine of recovering gem treasures and fighting hostile invaders. He was proud of him for doing such heroic deeds, but can he just spend one day as a normal kid whose biggest problems was puberty?

* * *

It was an almost alien feeling as of late, the Crystal Gems having nothing on their plates while the house was being inspected. While some of them insisted on helping with repairs or cleanup, Steven talked them into having a day to themselves. Considering the last one caused Lapis Lazuli to stick around, they figured all of them could benefit from some destressing time.

After grabbing a nutritious lunch of fry bits from the Fryman's shack for Steven, the eager half-gem, Connie and the five alien women stood at the entrance to Beach City Funland where Mr. Smiley, the owner and apparent sole operator of the park, was there to meet them.

"Hey there, special guests! Come to have a fun-derful day here?" he greeted with is usual ear-to-ear grin, "I've been told that you guys are to be treated as VIPs today!"

"Really? Who said that?" asked Peridot, "And what does 'VIP' mean?"

"First question, Mr. Universe's debit card, that's who! Second of all, it stands for **V**ery **I**mportant **P**erson and means you all get these special wristbands and cards to ride and play as much as you want all day!" Having his hands behind his back the whole time, he revealed seven golden cards in his left hand and seven paper bands in his right. They all gladly accepted their gifts, though there was clearly some apprehension in his cheer.

_"I just hope he's willing to pay any collateral damages too…"_ he thought to himself, hoping someone would guess the sweat on his brow was from the heat.

Lapis, still partially morose from her sleepless night, was holding her card and wristband with dread as if her touch would cause them to explode. "So… what exactly do we do here?"

"Don't worry, summertime fun buddy! I know just the thing for you and Peridot now!" He took hold of her hand along with the grumbling Peridot (muttering how the proper term for her would be VI_G_, but she could post in disgust about that later) and steered them towards the Funland Arcade where the two were instantly taken aback by the multitude of games in front of them.

"Wow! Are these all video games?!" said a slightly overwhelmed Lapis, the sight finally lifting her out of her funk.

"Yep! And thanks to those cards in your hands, you can play as much as you want! Have fun in there!"

The two charged in like children handed the keys to a candy store with Amethyst deciding to join them, ready to cheat her way at skee-ball again. The other four wandered off for their own way to spend the time. Garnet decided to simply settle on a bench and observe the occasional passersby and the scenery, taking in the salty air and sounds of merriment with her usual calm demeanor.

"So Pearl, what do you want to do?" asked Connie.

"Well, I've learned that those games are not my strong suit and although these rides seem like an adequate distraction, I don't know how they would compare to all the excitement I have experienced…"

"Well, you might as well try some, right? That wristband is only good for one day after all."

Hearing this the refined gem began to deliberate to herself, observing all the attractions around her until her eyes settled on the tilt-a-whirl. The three headed over and, with a flash of their wristbands, were let on the ride and enjoyed several minutes of joyous spinning. At least that was the case for the kids as Pearl was quickly overwhelmed, demanding the operator to diminish the velocity and inertia this instant. Naturally, the person Smiley had hired to operate the ride was a typical high-school student so his only response to the fully disoriented Pearl as she stumbled off the ride was "May the force be with you next time!" with a smirk. If it were not for her inability to find a single target in her vision, Pearl would have launched into a lengthy lecture about physics until Steven and Connie dragged her off to a bench to regain her senses.

"I guess thrill rides aren't your thing either Pearl…" remarked Connie, "You'd think after everything you've done this would be nothing."

"Your confidence is appreciated, Connie, but I suppose my mindset is different in combat. I will say it is nice to have some private time with you all, even if that little hooligan can't be bothered to know the most basic concepts of physics…" Before she could launch into several minutes of frustrated rambling, Amethyst walked over.

"Hey dudes! What are you all up to?" asked the purple gem, wearing a pair of tacky blue heart-glasses she got from the arcade's prize cabinet.

"Pearl didn't like the tilt-a-whirl," remarked Steven.

"And most likely wants to reform the public education system," added Connie.

"Hah! That is something she'd do to relax…" she laughed, lowering her new shades to give the disgruntled Pearl a smug look. The recovering gem crossed her arms, although it was obvious she could tell Amethyst was joking and was laughing at her own expense. A few more seconds passed before Pearl assured she was fine and the two could run off by themselves so long as they were all together at the end of the day. Amethyst took the now empty seat next to Pearl and kicked her feet up to get comfortable.

"So what happened in the arcade? Did you win all those tickets that fast?" inquired Pearl.

"Nah, it turns out Smiley got some kids to oversee the arcade and one of them caught me. After she yelled at me for like five minutes, she agreed to let me have anything I wanted as long as I didn't come back. And now I got these sweet things for free!"

"You already had free admittance," Pearl grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Why did you feel the need to cheat?"

"Because it's my way of having fun and it doesn't hurt anyone. I mean, yeah, sucks for the park who buys this stuff, but these can't cost more than a few bucks. I could have asked for something really nice, you know? She did say _anything _they had, after all."

Pearl looked straight up in alarm. "That's… actually a very reasonable argument. What parallel dimension did that spinning death-machine send me to?"

The rowdy gem laughed at her discomfort, but got unusually quiet after some time. She crossed her arms and tried her hardest to look at anything except Pearl. The more disciplined gem recognized this behavior. Amethyst had something on her mind.

"What's bothering you? I doubt this has something to do with throwing balls into holes."

While her phrasing did cause Amethyst to chuckle, she eventually looked over and asked a hard-hitting question.

"Pearl…what was the first gem war really like?" Her voice was terribly quiet and restrained compared to her normal tone.

"What?! Why the sudden interest in it?" replied Pearl.

"Because I never saw any of it. Sure, Rose would say some things about it, but she never gave me a real look at it. I think she was worried it'd freak me out and scare me off…" Her fists tightened and her eyes looked squarely at the planks below her.

"Amethyst… are you afraid that Homeworld is coming to attack?" Pearl placed a hand on the smaller gem's shoulder, but was shaken off.

"Maybe…" she sulked, "I mean, it's just swarms of angry gems armed with boatloads of weapons better than ours, there's thousands of them and only six of us, and they can make freaky mad science crap that can blow up the planet! What's to be scared of, am I right?!" Her glasses clattered to the ground as she began shaking in fear, but Pearl simply placed an arm around her.

"Of course I would be scared, Amethyst. Frankly, I'm grateful you or Steven didn't have to see any of that. For all the things I miss from the rebellion; all my old friends, the victories we had, Rose… It was terrifying. One minute your comrade was next to you, then they were gone and never heard from again. I feel blessed that it has stayed quiet for so long. I feel like everything Rose fought for was worth it getting to spend so much time here without having to look over my shoulder."

Pearl and Amethyst locked eyes, a mutual sense of gratefulness passing through them and returning to the lighthearted day they were supposed to be enjoying. The two stood up, Amethyst quickly reclaiming her glasses, before strolling off to find something to entertain them.

"Besides," Pearl remarked as they began on their way, "I doubt Homeworld would know how to corner the Purple Puma." She finished with an identical smirk to the one she received earlier, earning a sisterly punch to the arm for her wit.

* * *

Without meaning to, the seven very-important-visitors split into pairs with Steven and Connie partaking in as many rides as they could before they needed to catch their breath, Lapis and Peridot were glued to the arcade as they gorged on one game after the next with the two finding a special fondness for air hockey, and Amethyst and Pearl simply talked while observing the people and jabbing at each other for kicks. That left Garnet on the same bench she had been on since they arrived, only now her thoughts had drifted away from the scenery onto more pressing concerns.

_"So much has happened that I should have seen…"_ she thought morosely, reflecting on the past few weeks of abduction, attacks, and other nasty surprises. She was immensely grateful that none of the other gems were around to see her turmoil, fearing that would dampen the fun they were all having.

Inside her head two voices were in the middle of an argument.

_"I just don't get it!" _yelled Ruby, _"These Homeworld creeps keep getting the jump on us! Heck, they may have caught Steven if Lapis wasn't there!"_

_"I see that is rather unlikely," _retorted Sapphire, _"Given our collective skills, Steven's unexpected level of improvement and Peridot's usefulness, the odds of them succeeding were slim."_

_"But that's just it! You said Steven's improvement was 'unexpected', shouldn't we know about it?"_

_"I am just as displeased as you are! We just can't see _everything _or else none of this would have happened!" _

Garnet felt the displeasure well up and started shaking in her seat, clutching herself to stop her quaking.

"Quiet!" she hissed at herself "Don't fall apart now, that's the last thing they all need to see!"

It seemed to work as she became stable once again, but the inadequacy lingered. She took several deep breaths to calm her doubts. She hummed a soothing melody, the same one she taught Stevonnie months ago, to regain her serenity. She stood up and decided to do something with her time and walked up to the arcade where she found Peridot and Lapis playing a remake of the arcade classic "Univina", only instead of a simple space-shooter, this version bombarded the ten-foot tall screen in front of them with rainbow flashes every time they blew up an enemy fighter. The newest Crystal Gems were happily blasting away, even as the multitude of colors distracted them from their actual objective.

"HA! If only piloting a vessel were this simple," waxed Peridot as she blew through line after line of fighters, "I could have an entire fleet under my control and still read a book at the same time!"

"And yet you can't get the hang of pinball," smirked Lapis, who gladly took the backseat to her showboating partner as she hit whatever ship Peridot overlooked in her grandstanding.

"Well excuse me if it's difficult to play the game properly when you CAN'T SEE THE TABLE!"

"So you thought using your metal powers on a tiny ball in a machine filled with metal objects would work?"

"Relax, I got it unstuck and the damage is mostly cosmetic. It's not like such a primitive machine is difficult or costly to repair right?"

Garnet simply smiled at their banter, but made a mental note to bring something to cheer Greg up when he got his next bank statement.

* * *

The Gems had all agreed to reunite at the entrance to the park around sunset to head home with Connie being brought home on a portal to Lion. According to her phone, they still had at least two hours to enjoy themselves and thus she and Steven were feeding seagulls some leftover popcorn they could not finish to unwind after several rounds of carnival rides, processed food, and just having a grand time together.

Steven and she were perfectly content to sit there for the rest of the day until their time was up, maybe head into the arcade themselves for a bit, until Steven got a phone call from his father.

"Hey Dad! Is everything good for you to come over?" he asked, hoping he could challenge his old man to the ring toss, but he quickly learned that was not going to happen.

"Steven, I'm afraid that's not happening. In fact, you and the Crystal Gems need to come home now. I've already called Dr. Mahesweran to pick up Connie. She doesn't need to see this…" His voice was weary and ridden with guilt as if he just made a deal he immediately regretted.

"What? What's wrong, you sound upset?"

"I can't explain, just hurry up and get here before-" was all he got out before the call ended. Steven instantly stood up and ran into the amusement park and found Amethyst and Pearl still strolling without a care in the world.

"Guys!" he yelled, snapping them out of their pleasant bickering, "We need to get back to the temple! I think my dad is in trouble!"

"What?!" They both shouted in shock. The two ran back to find Garnet, Lapis and Peridot. Connie grabbed Steven's wrist before he could join on their search party.

"Steven, what's going on?! Is it Homeworld again?" she asked looking into his eyes, eager to help.

"Connie, Dad just told me your mom is coming to pick you up. He doesn't want you here and it sounds like something has him seriously scared. I can't change his mind now, just trust me, okay?"

She was clearly displeased with this, but decided to bow to Greg's wishes this time. Plus, knowing her mother, she figured if she ran off she would have half of the state police force looking for her missing daughter. Connie stayed on the same bench waiting for her ride while all six of the Crystal Gems ran up towards the entrance. Steven waved goodbye to his friend as he dashed off with his family.

It only took a few minutes for the Crystal Gems to return, Steven actually being at the head of the pack as he sprinted ahead with a combination of anxiety and anger on his face. Garnet was next carrying Peridot on her shoulders so the smaller technician would not fall behind followed by Pearl and Amethyst running alongside each other in unison. Lapis was farther behind them, flying several stories in the air to get a bird's eye view of any potential threat. It also gave her some semblance of peace so she could decide whether she wanted to enter whatever danger was ahead. When they rounded the cliff on the beach near their home, they were stunned by what they saw: a war zone.

It was apparent that Greg delivered on his promise of getting inspectors to look at the house today as several pick-up trucks were scattered about with some basic building supplies in tow for good measure. The disheartening part was that all of them were severely damaged, some being twisted and burned as if doused by a flamethrower while others were half-buried in sand and smashed by rocks. They saw trails of footprints leading up towards the house, implying whatever caused this sent the workers running away in a panic.

"Dad?! Where are you? Are you okay?" shouted Steven, paralyzed at seeing the carnage. The other gems were all stupefied, some readying themselves for a threat while others gawked at the mayhem.

The tension broke as the front door to the beach house opened. Out walked Greg, his head hung low in shame with his hands behind his back.

"Greg, thank goodness!" exclaimed Pearl, "What caused all of this?!"

The answer soon came forward as a new gem walked about behind him. Her face was unreadable as she walked down the stairs to the group while Greg remained on the porch, his hands bound behind his back by a pair of stone handcuffs.

All of the Crystal Gems revealed their weapons as the attacker walked forward. None of them recognized what type of gem this was; chartreuse skin, long hair, burly physique under a jacket and long pants. She stopped ten feet away from them when the sound of a roaring fire caught their attention. They all turned to see a massive fireball racing towards them from up the beach, stopping ten feet from their backs. The flames died down to reveal another unidentifiable gem, this one scarlet with a more revealing black ensemble and a placid grin on her face like she frequented long walks as a small inferno often and this was just a pleasant distraction.

"Who are you two?! What do you want?!" shouted Steven, his emotions boiling over seeing his home wrecked and his father imprisoned.

"My name is Adamite," said the green gem to their front, "The other one is Cinnabar. We want two things from you. First, we want any and all information about a Lapis Lazuli in the area."

"And?"

"Rose Quartz. We plan on forcing her back to Homeworld to face punishment for her crimes."

**Hope you enjoyed your break from the action, because a whole lot of it is coming next time when The Crystal Gems fight Adamite and Cinnabar!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	14. Elementary

**And now it's time for a clash between our heroes and two new elemental gems who want to capture Rose Quartz! Cue the action scene!**

There were many thoughts running through the Crystal Gems' minds as Adamite and Cinnabar cornered them. Some were analyzing possible weaknesses in the enemies' stance and logic. Some were simply dying to break the unease forming in the air as both teams remain silent. Steven was trying to do both of these while mentally pounding himself for ever assuming his mother's identity. He even swore to himself that he will change his voice mail for every single contact to "Hey, this is Steven. Sorry I can't talk to you now. Please leave a message. I'M NOT ROSE QUARTZ! Hope I can get back to you soon, bye!"

Both of the new gems scanned the small crowd for their targets. While Adamite looked impassive as she stared them down, Cinnabar was getting restless and ignited two large fireballs in her hands.

"Where's Lapis?! We know she's around here somewhere! Tell us NOW!" The flames grew even larger and the gems could feel heat radiating off of their backs.

"Calm down, Cinnabar! Roasting them isn't going to get us answers…yet," commanded Adamite. Her order seemed to penetrate the frenzied fire gem and the blaze died down, but her body language made it clear she wanted to disobey.

"Whoa, there Hot Shot!" remarked Amethyst, turning to face Cinnabar trying to defuse her nerves "If you want to get fried, just ask and I'll serve you up!"

"Ha, that threat might mean something if you could stand up to me. Now be quiet, unless _you_ want to get whipped," retorted the scarlet invader, earning a boastful smile from her purple adversary. This may be a serious moment, but Amethyst respected trash talk as an art form and this one clearly had skills.

"Enough! We'll give you one last chance, release the human and leave or fight!" shouted Garnet, her rage overwhelming her reason as she once again felt responsible for night foreseeing this encounter.

"I can understand why you would be so protective of Rose Quartz given that she is your leader. Even so, I doubt you all have the capabilities to defeat us. Our abilities are far and away from what most gems are capable of," remarked Adamite.

"Well then…" whispered Peridot as she raised and bent an arm, "You're not the only one!" She snapped her arm straight, causing the doors of one of the half-submerged trucks to fly off its hinges towards Adamite. She only showed the slightest bit of surprise as the projectile flew closer. With a flick of her own arm, the sand beneath her feet rose into a crude wall, stopping the door only inches from her form. Despite its force, the wall held firm and caused the improvised metal missile to break apart leaving Adamite unharmed.

"Interesting," remarked the unharmed Adamite, her tone as patronizing as before, "You do have some unique abilities of your own." With a stomp of her foot, a spire of rock launched Peridot twenty feet in the air, the formerly smug analyst screaming as she flew. "A pity they are useless against me."

As Peridot ascended higher into the sky, desperately missing her limb enhancers for the first time in ages, Cinnabar readied a long spear of flames to pierce her as she began falling back to the ground, grinning as she took aim, eager to finally have some and action…

"NO!" shouted Lapis, finding the courage to enter the fray. She swooped down at lightning speed, grabbing Peridot mid-flight and sending a large wave right at Cinnabar, dousing her blazing halberd and taking everyone by surprise.

"Stop this right now! I won't stand by while you hurt everyone! Either go away or we'll make you…" demanded Lapis. The other Crystal Gems could hardly believe the sight of the normally meek Lapis willingly picking a fight, but her piercing glare and raised fists backed up her words.

Cinnabar, after recovering from her surprise deluge, stepped forward with an unusual timidness as if approaching a wild animal. She looked in utter disbelief as she walked closer, right past all of the gems she was just intimidating a second ago.

"Lapis…?" asked the mystified red gem in a voice so quiet even Adamite was shocked, "Is that really you?"

Lapis turned around to face her new opponent, but her fury dissipated when she laid eyes on Cinnabar. The other Crystal Gems were all caught off guard as well upon seeing the two together. Their faces were exactly the same, as if someone literally copied Lapis' exact image onto another body. And on another glance, Adamite was the same too! Even gems of the same type were not spitting images of each other as these three.

While Lapis was as disturbed by this as the others, there was even more apprehension for her as she felt a hunch that she really did know who this madwoman was. Of course she had no actual memory of her, but something deep down told her otherwise.

The incendiary intruder stopped two feet from her maritime twin, studying each other's faces. Then, without any warning, Cinnabar wrapped Lapis in a warm hug, crying tears of joy proclaiming "It IS you! It's been so long! Where have you been all this time?!" as if reuniting with a long lost love.

"What are you talking about?! Get off of me!" shouted a now confounded Lapis, throwing off her red counterpart, "I have never seen you two in my life! All I know is you attacked my home and nearly hurt one of my friends! Stop acting like you know me!"

The other gem looked heartbroken at her harsh words, but Adamite appeared behind her by tunneling through the earth to put a hand on shoulder. As her companion began to weep, the stern gem looked Lapis in the face.

"Lapis Lazuli Facet-1KYC Cut-1XI? Terraforming Brigade 7-Delta? We went on 147 missions together?" The gem in question returned with a confused look, forcing Adamite to hide her own sorrow by looking down until she could regain her composure.

"Pearl, what's going on? Have you ever seen gems like these two before?" asked Steven, his guard lowering as their once fearsome invaders were unraveling.

"No, I was surprised enough by Lapis' abilities, but seeing two more? I don't know what to make of it…" answered Pearl, still waiting for the fight to commence.

"Judging from that designation though, Lapis is rather old in the line. Actually, I don't recall seeing any other Lapises on Homeworld…" muttered Peridot, silently wondering if she could catch them by surprise with another truck-door sneak attack.

"Very well then…" muttered the distraught Adamite, "If you refuse to side with us, we will give you a chance to flee while we collect our other objective."

"No. I said I won't stand by and let you hurt everyone and I meant it! I saw you attack Peridot and you are never doing that again while I'm around!"

And with that proclamation, all hell broke loose as Adamite and Cinnabar began their true assault on the Crystal Gems.

Steven's shield was put to good use as the scarlet arsonist launched a torrent of fire right at him, though the heat was unbearable and his sandals were melting under the onslaught. It did serve as an adequate distraction as Garnet clocked Cinnabar across the face with a nasty punch with her gauntlets. Pearl followed soon after with a series of swipes with her spear that forced her opponent into dodging until she released a wave of flame that forced Pearl to dodge or get incinerated. Amethyst picked up the slack by roping Cinnabar with her whip as Peridot sent a barrage of metal shards from her failed attack at her while ensnared. Unfortunately, the group soon learned Amethyst's whip was not fireproof as it crumbled into ash under her continued conflagration.

With a three-on-one battle in full swing, Steven and Peridot turned to Adamite while the main three continued their brawl with Cinnabar. As of now, Lapis was holding her own against the geokinetic gem. The two were trading blows on equal footing, even if it was clear Adamite had the advantage in experience versus the more pacifistic Lapis. Each volley of stones was met by a massive wall of water, a torrent made to surprise collided with a shield of sand that stopped the blow, and neither gem was gaining or losing ground. Seeing an opportunity to change the flow of battle, Peridot scanned the area for more possible ammo while Steven charged headfirst into the scuffle. He summoned his full bubble for extra protection and rolled even as rocks the size of his fist grazed the sides of his defenses. He pushed ahead until he literally rammed into Adamite, finally eliciting genuine shock from her, before she tumbled away in a heap. The young boy did not give her the chance to stand though, as he leapt above the air, focusing his floating powers to keep him off the ground, and readied another charge. Adamite tried summoning another sand barrier to stop the impact, but Steven blasted right through it and sent her sprawling again.

"I don't understand!" screamed the frazzled Adamite, her calm eroding as Steven plowed through more shoddy sand walls, "You are clearly a human, but you have the powers of a gem?! What are you?! How are you so durable?!"

"My name is Steven Universe, a Crystal Gem and a kid really sick of people hurting my family! Now stop attacking Lapis, let my dad go, and LEAVE!" In his boasting, Steven had dropped his bubble and summoned a pair of pink gauntlets just like Garnet's. Adamite braced herself and summoned a much thicker ring of sand to halt the blow, but Steven's punch still made a massive crack in her defense. As the furious hybrid wailed on it with his armored fists, Lapis summoned a hand of water to flatten the gem inside. Under the combined weight of Lapis' marine constructs and Steven's punches, her attempts to reinforce it meant nothing and the wall came down, only to reveal nothing inside. The two of them plus an awestruck Peridot were ready to celebrate only for Adamite to reappear by the rock wall via tunneling.

"Heh…impressive." She cracked a genuine smile for the first time years as she renewed her attack, forcing columns of stone to jut out from the cliff-side behind her.

While a new clash between the newer Crystal Gems emerged against Adamite, Cinnabar had to contend with the three longstanding members who were quickly seeing through her strategy of burn everything. She quickly learned that Garnet was constantly one step ahead of her, forcing the bellicose gem to change her tactics. She put all of her pyrokinetic tricks to the test as she summoned flames of every shape and size, even mimicking their three weapons to fight on a more even level. Unfortunately for her, the three of them were proving more than capable as their prowess and teamwork overwhelmed her. Every time she would dodge or outmaneuver one, another would be ready to strike.

After dozens of hits, Cinnabar was quickly losing her patience as she had to truly concentrate to avoid being poofed by her opponents. Now her agility was fatigue was setting in, forcing her to get desperate. She dodged another brutal punch from Garnet, but Pearl came and swept her off her feet with her spear. Amethyst was readying a blow with her above to force her into the sand, only for the flaming gem to get a truly diabolical idea. She sent a stream of fire straight towards the beach house where Greg had been watching the battle (mostly gaping as his son proved his own against such a tough adversary) and set it ablaze. Even with the moisture still in the boards from Lapis' flood and the proximity to the ocean, it was ignited in seconds and soon blazed into a house fire with him at the center. This caught everyone's attention and the fighting stopped instantly as Greg to find a way through the flames, but doubled over coughing and sweating from the smoke and heat.

"DAD!" Steven screamed in terror, his anger forgotten in a rush to save his father. Lapis readied a rush of water to stop the blaze, only for Adamite to step forward.

"Enough of this. It is obvious we cannot overpower you, so perhaps negotiations will be more effective. Now either hand over Rose Quartz or disclose her location. Otherwise the human you seem to care for will suffer."

Lapis grimaced as she sent a torrent of ocean water forward, only for a massive wall of sand twice the size of the house to rise to block the attempt. Again and again Lapis tried putting out the fire, but every attempt was met with the same as Adamite shifted the wall to block every wave. All the while Greg was losing consciousness from the intense heat, made worse by the wall enclosing him in an oversized oven. The other gems considered rushing in, but figured Greg only had minutes. His body just could not handle such extreme conditions. Finally, as he heard father's coughing stop in the inferno, Steven could not take it anymore.

"STOP! I'll tell you if you just let him go!" He lowered his shield and stepped forward, looking Adamite in the eyes. The other gems were less than pleased with this.

"Steven Universe, don't you DARE do this again!"

"No… No…Not again…"

"Dude, really?! There are better ways around this!"

"Please don't do this Steven…We can't let this happen again."

"Well crud, does anyone have another pile of random junk so we can build a spaceship?"

He did not waver from their outcry and stood tall. "I am… Rose Quartz's son."

Both groups, friend and foe alike, were taken aback by his confession. While the Crystal Gems were grateful Steven was learning from his earlier mistakes, the newcomers were confused.

"Sun? You are her giant star in the sky?" asked Cinnabar, her head still swimming from taking one too many blows to the head.

"No, I'm... someone she cares for, a lot. If I'm gone, she'll definitely come to look for me. She might even go back to Homeworld if it means I'm safe."

"So you are offering yourself as a hostage?" inquired Adamite.

"Yes, but you can't hurt me. If you do, Rose will be super mad and just fight you instead of surrendering. I don't know when she'll come back either, but as long as we stay on Earth it won't be a problem for her to find us."

The stoic gem weighed her options and although she found it strange the boy was sweating profusely and staring at his gravity connectors the whole time, she could not come up with anything better and lowered the wall. She then pointed to Cinnabar who absorbed the flames, leaving a disoriented Greg mostly unharmed aside from his chafing wrists.

The five Crystal Gems were stupefied by what had occurred. They all wanted the fight to continue, but knew they could just put Greg in the same position if they resisted. Cinnabar and Adamite stood behind Steven and led him past his friends as he looked back and smiled, scared but hopeful that they could find him without too much trouble. He was led away from the beach and forced to walk past the borders of his hometown with no idea where these two would take him.

**And now Steven has to play hostage to these two! What will the Crystal Gems do? What will Steven do to get out of this situation! Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	15. Search

**And now, with Steven missing, what will the Crystal Gems do? And just what is the deal with Adamite and Cinnabar? Time to find out!**

Hours passed after the battle with the duo of rogue gems. The beach house was barely holding together, heavily burned now on top of the substantial water damage Lapis caused earlier. It was a miracle that the structure was still standing, but that was the last topic on their minds.

_"It's all my fault…" _thought Greg, sitting on the steps to their now ravaged house and rubbing his wrists that were cuffed, _"I couldn't do anything but be a hostage. And now Steven…" _He kept tearing up every time his son came to mind. He tried refocusing on something more positive yet between his only child missing, his only chance for finding them looking scattered and his home being razed, his spirits were fading fast.

Amethyst and Peridot shared a sense of dismay as they paced across the sand, grumbling how they could not stop their attackers. The former was more concerned with how she could totally have taken them if they had not pulled such a cheap move. The latter was more perplexed at how useless she felt during the confrontation and how her ferrokinesis, though much improved over time, still proved insufficient.

Pearl was drawing on years of experience. She was harnessing eons of knowledge gained from her career of facing untold perils and staggering opponents to win a battle in her mind. Said battle was not rushing off to spear the daylights out of those two renegade gems for attacking and kidnapping her precious Steven along with her entire team, putting Greg's life in mortal danger and defacing her home. Since she had neither a proper plan nor confidence she could beat those two by herself, she resorted to dashing across the beach in a frenzy trying to formulate a one-gem battle plan. She considered this a solid compromise.

Lapis was bemoaning her failure at protecting her buddy despite all the boasting from earlier. She was especially embarrassed considering the scope of her abilities (A gem who can control any and all water losing a fight while _on a beach?!_) At least now she had a clear incentive to attend the Crystal Gems' training sessions…which only brought up her earlier fiasco again making her more dejected.

Garnet was…sitting on the beach.

Her head, normally so prudent and sensible that it could lower even the harshest tempers, was a hurricane of conflicting thoughts and feelings. While she may have performed well in combat, she ultimately failed to see the larger threat of Greg being used as bait to lure Steven into a trap. She could have slipped away in countless ways, grabbed him at dozens of points during the fight, and brought him to safety or at least urged him to run in a multitude of fashions. But she saw nothing, too focused in the heat of battle to be proactive. Hindsight was quickly becoming her greatest enemy.

They all remained there, stewing in their failure and doubt, with one shared thought running through their heads: what were those two going to do Steven?

* * *

Adamite and Cinnabar were pleased that their hostage was cooperating. He had yet to pull an escape attempt, had seemingly no desire to put up a fight (though Adamite would keep her distance if he pulled out those gauntlets again), and even offered suggestions to improve their progress as they traversed the wide open acres of the Delmarva countryside. One of his suggestions was a form of transportation called a 'train' to move faster, but Adamite shot it down upon seeing it since she figured such a large carrier could be easily tracked.

Even after that, though, Steven remained as upbeat as before, humming a tune to herself as the afternoon passed. Eventually, though, they were forced to stop when a mysterious rumbling caught the gems' attention.

"What was that?" asked Cinnabar, upset that their peace was ruined.

"It's nearby," replied Adamite, "Keep your eyes on Rose, it could be those Crystal Gems coming to-"

"It's just my stomach," replied Steven, "Calm down, guys."

His captors looked stumped at this, both pondering what a 'stomach' was and if it would become a recurring issue. They at least got the second part correct. Soon after the three wandered to a nearby field where some wild blueberries grew. After his fruitful snack, he dusted himself off and continued on as if nothing had changed, causing his two escorts to be more perplexed than they have been in centuries.

* * *

Night was quickly approaching as the remaining Crystal Gems and Greg huddled together on the beach around Garnet who had not moved from her spot in hours. The six sat in the sand under the setting sun going from periods of exchanging ideas followed by long stretches of silence as a sense of defeat passed through them. Of all of them, Amethyst was the most determined to brush off their loss and try again.

"Come on guys! We need to get off our butts and chase after them!" she exclaimed, kicking up sand in her rush to stand, "The longer we sit here feeling sorry for ourselves, the harder they'll be to track!"

"Amethyst," groaned Pearl, "For the last time, we have zero indication of where they are going. For all we know, they have already… disposed of him." Pearl swallowed a sob and continued. "Besides, if they are set of returning to Homeworld, they are most likely equipped to send him there."

"I don't think so," said Lapis. Pearl was surprised to hear her speak up, but would take any second opinion to raise her spirits.

"I mean those guys were tough, but they weren't planned for this at all. They just charged in and only had Greg because he happened to be here. If they had a formal plan, why not wait until Steven was asleep or by himself?"

"Yes, that does seem unusual," confirmed Peridot, "They were baffled by Steven's abilities, his appearance and insistently called him Rose. Combining that with a lack of any battle tactics or formal backup, I would guess this whole strategy was made very recently. With that in mind, this means they most likely have little to no means to contact Homeworld. It would be easier, however, if we had some information on them…"

All of them stared at Lapis. "I have no idea who they are! I swear, I never knew or worked with an Adamite or a Cinnabar! I was just as shocked as the rest of you!" she yelled.

"It's okay Lapis," reassured Pearl, "Judging from what they said, they knew you long ago. If I had to hazard a guess, maybe all that time you spent in the mirror caused some… damage?"

Lapis could only nod, totally lost on what else to do. Greg put a hand on her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

"Lapis, I may have no clue how gems work outside of some basic stuff, but I would guess that spending thousands of years in a pane of glass would mess up anyone's marbles. At least you turned out fine in the end, right? And I know Steven and the other gems here feel the same."

The maritime gem gave a smile to him as the rest of the gems appreciated his optimism. All of them except Garnet who was completely silent throughout their extended meeting. None of them paid it any mind as they all assumed she was concentrating on finding Steven.

"Alright, now we are making progress!" cheered Pearl, "So we are fairly confident that they cannot leave and have a need for Steven to remain intact as long as his cover story holds. The question now is how will they try to reach Homeworld?"

Peridot followed with a theory of hers. "Seeing as humans have no reliable means of intergalactic communication, they will have to improvise a solution to their conundrum. My first guess would be something digital through the Internet or a sort of hijacking of some kind through cell phone towers that they could use to establish contact…"

"Wow, Peridot! When did you get so knowledgeable about cell phones?" asked Greg.

"When I was constructing our makeshift Internet hotspot for the barn, I first tapped into a bandwidth used for cell phones. I quickly moved on since it wasn't what I was looking for, and I could not understand a thing people were saying over those things! Did humans develop an entire second language or set of code for those devices?! I mean, what the heck is a 'selfie' anyway?"

Amethyst calmed her down and promised she would explain later while the others wrestled with this theory. Amusing as her outbursts were, they all realized this meant they had no reliable way of tracking them since they seem to have no proper destination in mind.

"Wait a minute," piped Greg, "What about Steven's phone?"

Amethyst was confused by his question. "Uh Greg, I don't think we can just call Steven. I doubt those two will let him tell us where they are…"

"I figure that, but what if we can track them through Steven's phone? I know he still has it since those two made me call him on it to bring you all here."

The entire group lit up, Pearl even calling him brilliant, and ran off to work on their new plan. While they may not have a barn full of scraps anymore, they were all fired up to finally have a hope at getting Steven back. All except for Garnet, still seated at the same spot. She barely heard anything they said over the screaming in her head, yelling that this entire debacle was because of her.

* * *

As the hours progressed, Steven was still being led by Adamite and Cinnabar with a remarkable sense of calm despite the situation he was in. He had been led away from the vast fields and farms into rockier terrain as they traveled west with his impounders only feet away. Out of those two, however, only Adamite was paying him any mind as Cinnabar was trying to hum the same melody Steven was currently doing to pass the time. Adamite was running on patience from this, but it also raised her curiosity.

"I don't understand," said the rugged gem.

"What, you mean what I did on the beach? It's a long story, but-" started Steven before being cut off.

"Your abilities are intriguing, but they are not my primary concern. I am referring to your current attitude. Not too long ago you were enraged and attacking us, yet you willingly complied to come with us and are now perfectly cordial. Is this just how humans are?"

"Not really, all humans are different. I can't say how every other person would act here."

This caught the gems by surprise. Even after the millennia they spent away from the strict hierarchy from Homeworld, the thought of countless individuals of the same group possessing different attributes sent their heads spiraling.

Steven was also taken aback, but for different reasons. "I thought you two would know a little something about humans. You mean you've never talked to one?"

Adamite and Cinnabar shared the same dumbfounded expressions on their interchangeable faces. Neither one of them could come up with an adequate answer other than responses that boiled down to "What's the point?" for the former and "I just never felt like it!" for the latter. With the sun setting, Steven insisted they make a quick stop so his steadily aching legs to heal.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you guys look dumb, it's just weird to me you spent so much time here without talking to one person."

Both gems, for the nth time that day, were stunned by his continued tact and optimism. Here they were leading him off to who-knows-where away from his protectors, and he was still striking a polite conversation. Cinnabar in particular was almost feeling remorse for her actions, and this coming from a gem whose pastime is starting wildfires.

"That does remind me of something I wanted to ask you two," the boy continued as they all sat on a flat patch among the hills, "How did you get here and how do you know Lapis?"

"We…were comrades alongside that Lapis Lazuli when the original gem colony was being established here by Pink Diamond," answered Adamite, "It was one of dozens of missions the three of us were sent on by Blue Diamond."

Cinnabar, spending more time in touch with reality in the past twenty-four hours than she had in the past twenty-four centuries, actually stepped in. "Uh Adamite, maybe we shouldn't tell him this?"

"Even if he divulges our background to Rose Quartz, what harm could it bring? I will remain steadfast in my mission if she intends to sway my allegiance. Besides, this human has proven more than agreeable in being our hostage and positive reinforcement can be one way to ensure it stays as such."

After offering an unsure thanks for the backhanded compliment (and mentally bracing himself for Connie's reaction to him offering himself to an enemy AGAIN), he told a slightly modified story that Rose was enamored by his musician father and after years of bonding he came into existence through a process even he is not fully aware of. He conveniently left out his mother giving up her form for his, and then went on saying he was raised by both his father and the Crystal Gems. This left Adamite satisfied and Cinnabar actually excited at the prospect of seeing what else a human-gem hybrid could do. Alas, she had to quell the urge to test his abilities through a literal trial by fire since she remembered the condition that he must be unharmed. Adamite threatening on burying her from the neck up for several days was also effective.

And so Adamite explained how she, Lapis, and Cinnabar were sent to dozens of planets together as a sort of cleanup crew along with more of their own kind. After all organic life was wiped out by the armies of invading gems, they would step in to ready the planet for the construction of the colony proper. She then detailed how the Lapis Lazulis would move all bodies of liquid with their immense control of liquid, Adamites would adjust any differences in elevation with their power over all solid ground and Cinnabars would incinerate any remnants of the planet's previous inhabitants with humungous swaths of flame. While they established that there were many other of the same gem in their brigade, they formed a sense of comradery among the three of them.

"Really? What made you all become friends?" asked an intrigued Steven.

"As you can most likely tell, Lapis Lazulis were never designed for combat and were rather meek and subservient. The Lapis you have met, however, was unusually outgoing for her kind. She would frequently prolong her tasks so she could observe the surroundings, but never enough to arouse suspicion. Eventually Cinnabar and I came to appreciate this unique approach and coerced with each other during missions. Over time we even requested that we be placed together on missions."

"That sounds really nice. But if you guys worked so well together, how'd you get stuck here?"

"Since the Diamonds were unsure of how to approach your mother's rebellion, they felt as though they were falling behind schedule on forming the colony. They sent the three of us specifically, thanks to our superior synergy, to inspect the planet to give a sort of prognosis for what needed to be done. But Lapis… her wanderlust got the better of her even though she was directly ordered to avoid straying off course due to the dangers involved."

Steven put two and two together as he realized what had happened. He also noted how both gems in front of him dipped their heads, Cinnabar looking especially disheartened at remembering such a loss. He could even swear he heard the fiery gem trying to hold back sobs.

"So…what happened after Lapis was…gone?" he dared to ask.

Adamite's voice was noticeably shakier than before. "We were blamed for letting her wander off and be either captured or shattered by enemy forces. As punishment we were never recalled back to Homeworld and were essentially abandoned here. We… spent an absurd amount of time trying to locate her, but we found no trace of her. We…had to assume the worst and felt rather responsible for her disappearance."

"But now we've found her!" interrupted Cinnabar, her voice also cracking, "Those Crystal Gems must have done something to her to make her forget us, but we'll bring her back!"

As hope welled up in Cinnabar, Steven could not bring himself to mention how it was Homeworld that had her imprisoned in that mirror and interrogated her for so long. Adamite, however, resumed her usual demeanor and continued her explanation.

"And even if she has become a traitor, we have a duty to return to Homeworld to continue our mission. In order to get Homeworld to accept us, however, I figured that we would need a sufficient reason for them to reinstate us into their ranks after our failure-"

"And that's why you want Rose Quartz," finished Steven. Adamite nodded and stood once more, signaling her hostage and companion to do the same. Night had fallen during their lengthy discussion, but the young hybrid was not the least bit tired. He was too preoccupied with what to do with the glut of information he received. Now he was almost wishing the Crystal Gems would take longer to find him if it meant getting these two to open up more.

* * *

Pearl and Peridot have many traits in common. They can both be incredibly neurotic, have a burgeoning interest in science and technology, have a tendency to go into long-winded rants when stressed or overexcited, and now they were both putting their skills to the test in order to construct a device that could track Steven's phone signal to locate him and the rogue gems that captured him.

Although they ran into an issue being that without the barn, they did not have the massive stockpile of resources to use so they had to get creative. Namely, have Greg purchase several cheap cell phones from the nearby grocery store while Amethyst digs through her room to find whatever parts and materials they could use with Lapis assisting her in treasure hunting/sneaking off a few useful pieces she was more reluctant to part with.

Lapis wondered for hours how she got stuck with the most difficult job.

After the occasional blowup with both the unfinished device and a peeved Amethyst chasing after her favorite shinies, the duo of tech whizzes managed to construct a makeshift tracker. The only issue now was the two arguing how to best power the device.

"We can't simply use these batteries!" said Pearl, "Such an intensive task could overload them and risk damaging the hardware! We need to build an exterior power source to avoid unnecessary risks!"

"We're already short on time!" retorted Peridot, "Creating such an apparatus takes away time we could be using to get closer to Steven! The batteries are able to be easily recharged anyway and perfectly usable, so let's use them!"

Greg, having fulfilled his role as the courier of cell phones, had his own idea. "Guys-"

"Steven's ploy strictly forbade the two from injuring him or letting him suffer any serious damage! We have plenty of time and resources and we need to do this correctly!"

"Uh, ladies?" he attempted again.

"You do remember one of those gems is a pyromaniac who tried spearing me for her own amusement, right?! We need to finish this project as soon as possible to ensure she cannot harm Steven!"

"Guys!" he raised his voice at them, finally getting a word in edgewise. "What about Garnet?"

Both of the gems stared at him in confusion.

"She has electric powers, right? I mean she jump-started the van a long time ago, can't she juice this up too?"

Both gems proceeded to slap their foreheads and groan loudly at their own shared oversight. Lapis, amused as she was by their bickering, walked over to Garnet to get her assistance.

"Hey Garnet, we could use your help with this. We need you to use your-" Lapis trailed off when the fusion did not even seem to acknowledge her presence. In fact, she seemed completely unaware of anything that was happening around her. She was still parked in the same spot from their previous meeting, gazing at the coming and going waves for hours with no change.

"Garnet?" Lapis poked the silent fusion to rouse her. Nothing. Greg and the other gems took notice and walked over to her.

"Yo Garnet, wake up!" shouted Amethyst in the approximate location of Garnet's ear, "We need your zappy gloves to power Peri and Pearl's nerd gadget!"

The fusion said nothing in response. All she could do was look out into the waves and struggle with her feelings of failure. It felt as though even the entire ocean was not enough to contain the loathing she felt for herself. She might even consider just letting it wash her away, let it take into a place where she could not fail her friends anymore.

And so she did, as her mind drifted off into unconsciousness and she fell flat on the sand as if all life was drained from her. The other Crystal Gems were horrified and tried lifting her off the sand, but her mass seemed to skyrocket forcing them to leave her in place. Without her, it was back to Pearl and Peridot's debate on how to power their new contraption.

* * *

The unlikely trio of Steven, Adamite and Cinnabar continued on their journey through the hills of west Delmarva. All seemed to be fine as they marched on until Steven began to feel lightheaded. The gems paid him no mind at first until his pace slowed and ended up tripping over a large rock that sent him tumbling down a pit. Adamite quickly retrieved him, but he was out cold.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Cinnabar, "If he's hurt, our mission is over!"

"Relax, he seems mostly unharmed. He withstood far more punishment during our battle earlier. Considering he is partially human he is most likely exhausted from the constant traveling. We are near our destination and have held up to his conditions, so we have no reason to withdraw."

While Adamite considered tunneling the rest of the way to their destination, she figured the boy still needed air meaning they still could not travel at full speed. Nevertheless, she made a compromise as she formed a foot-tall rock emerge from the ground to carry her forward quickly while letting Steven rest on her strong shoulders. Cinnabar assumed her fireball form to keep up. As the two neared their destination, they both wondered what caused their detainee to suddenly collapse. And why they could hear him mumble to no one in particular.

**PLOT TWIST! Find out the answer's to the next in a long line of many cliffhangers next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	16. Unlocking Garnet

**And now for something completely different: Steven in mental realms!**

Steven awoke to what was definitely the strangest sight in his life. Considering his fourteen years consisting of traversing fantastical locations, fighting corrupted alien soldiers, and living with a menagerie of such colorful personalities that made up the Crystal Gems nowadays, that was quite the accomplishment. Even still, this new scene had blown everything else away.

The sky was a mix of vibrant blue and red, mixing and shifting as if two pools of dye dancing around each other above his head. Splotches of purple would appear when the clouds touched and vanished once the respective colors separated. Despite there being no clouds in the sky, snow was still falling onto the ground which Steven curiously felt both and heat and cold emanating from it. The oddities continued to pile up as he noticed the snow was two different colors as well. Some flakes were pure white snow, but others were a harsh black. When he caught one on his finger in a daze, he noticed it crumbled instead of melting. The black flecks were ash raining down along with the snow.

He soon found his footing and gaped at the landscape around him. The ground was a chaotic mishmash of arctic and volcanic - glaciers of ice several stories tall sitting in pools of lava, streams of molten rock ran alongside frigid rivers filled with ice floes, beds of volcanic rocks were interspersed with large fields of picturesque snow. All the plants around him were pine trees that were either winter postcard-worthy loaded with green needles and white blankets or charred to a crisp with orange flames at the ends of branches. The temperature was surprisingly stable as the heat and cold created a pleasant warmth that his body relished for something familiar.

He tentatively took a step forward onto the field of blackened stones. They seemed stable enough so he stepped on, baffled at how he could end up in such a place.

He muttered in amazement to no one in particular at the antithetical scenery. Nothing here made sense, it all should have fallen apart, but it somehow remained harmonious. Even the dancing colors of the sky moved as if their conflict was an enjoyable dance instead of anything threatening.

"Hello?" he spoke into the surreal space before him, wondering if this was all some grand hallucination.

"Steven," spoke a familiar voice. The boy in question was taken aback even further.

"Garnet?! Where are you? What is this place?" As he continued wrapping his head around this phenomena, the fusion in question appeared in front of him looking just as confused as he was.

"This…is my mind."

All at once, Steven was relieved and baffled at the same time. While he had gone into another person's head before, he had never done it to one of the Crystal Gems. It also never led him into some sort of surreal mindscape.

"Garnet, what's going on? Why am I here?"

Garnet let out a morose chuckle and turned away from him. "I don't know Steven. Again."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I was supposed to be the leader of the Crystal Gems in your mother's absence. For the most part I believed I was doing an adequate job until recently. All my recent decisions have either been wrong or failing to account for major events. Hard to keep your head up when the world keeps proving you wrong."

As she chastised herself, Steven felt the ground beneath him shift and change. The glaciers were beginning to melt in the lava, the frosted trees began to burn, and massive vents of steam began erupting from the ground. The swirling colors in the sky began dancing faster, as if trying to smash into each other now with violent patches of violet appearing more frequently. He also noticed a real change in Garnet, all three of her eyes filled with regret and self-loathing.

"Garnet, calm down! I'm sure everything will be fine…" he tried to reassure her, but that only got a resentful chuckle out of her.

"Steven, it feels so off to hear you say that. Knowing everything is going to work out is supposed to be _my _job. I am supposed to keep you secure, not the other way around."

The geysers grew in height and intensity, the chilly water and scorching lava met and began to meet and cause masses of black rock to emerge like scars across the land around them.

"Garnet, stop it! Can't you see what you're doing to yourself?!" He panicked as another steam vent emerged between his legs, but Garnet rushed forward to save him before he could be scalded. She did not know if he could be harmed in this place, but chose not to take the chance.

"See, you saved me! You don't have to beat yourself up over every little thing!" As Garnet put him down on the snowy ground, she turned away from him.

"You're right. I can see _little_ things. And a lot of good has come of that…" she snarled inwardly.

"Okay, I get that you feel bad, but-" He started, before she began literally pounding the ground with her gauntlets in a rage.

"I feel like a failure! That's all I've done these past weeks is FAIL! I could have stopped it, ALL OF IT! But I didn't!"

* * *

Back in the realm of the conscious, Amethyst and Pearl dragged the now senseless Garnet by their juryrigged signal tracker where she remained completely still. Peridot, Lapis and Greg looked on in shock at the normally infallible gem left a husk of her former self.

Amethyst was taking her usual approach to handle this type of situation; slap it in the face.

"Garnet!" she yelled delivering another harsh smack to her face, "Snap out of it! We need your zappy hands to get Steven back!" Another smack, no response. "Gah! Come on, I thought you wanted Steven back!"

"Amethyst!" chastised Pearl, "I'm confident Garnet wants Steven back, but personally attacking her is not going to solve the problem!"

"Uh, maybe she's just stressed from everything going on?" offered Greg.

Peridot stood over the unconscious fusion with an analyzing eye. "Perhaps, but considering her constitution, both physically and emotionally, I highly doubt this is the result of sporadic depression or exhaustion. My hypothesis would be this is the result of a large capacity of pent-up emotional baggage."

"When did you get so good at reading people?" asked Amethyst, giving one last pat on the cheek for good measure.

"Soap operas. You'd be astonished how much foreshadowing can be created with facial expressions."

Lapis, impressed by her barn-mate's display of newfound prowess as she was, noticed a bizarre glowing from Garnet's hands. She knelt down and opened her fists to find the two gems on her palms were emanating bright rays of light, red from her left hand and blue from her right. The rest of the crowd was shocked by this development.

"Uh Pearl, does this happen when gems get knocked out?"

Upon seeing this new development, Pearl reached a new threshold of stress. In the past twenty-four hours her peaceful day with her family had been dashed by two rogue elemental gems who abducted her pride and joy right in front of her, their de facto leader had fallen unconscious, she had created a new electronic signal tracker from spare parts and electronics in a few hours, and now this phenomenon. Combining this with the bad taste left by that cursed tilt-a-whirl and Pearl reached a new point of stress. She simply let herself fall forward, standing perfectly straight, and let her face flop into the sand with her pointed nose dig in several inches.

"No Greg, this is not a common occurrence. I don't know what to do about it," she muttered from the sand, fully out of energy to raise a fit. At this point, she was relishing the cold sand getting into her nostrils and dirtying her clothes. At least that was something she could easily clean up later.

* * *

Garnet finally stopped her outburst after several minutes. Each punch at the ground accelerated the rotting of her mental world. Crags of black volcanic rock were spreading like cancerous tendrils, eradicating the ethereal beauty the realm once had. Steam and black clouds had sprung up in the sky, now a sickly shade of purple as if both dancing colors merged and then became ill.

Steven, despite never being touched, could feel every hit as if they had collided with his soul. He had never imagined Garnet of all people could suffer so much confusion and regret. He stepped towards the fusion as she knelt on the ground, tears freely flowing from her eyes. He carefully placed a hand on her shoulders, desperately trying to relieve the pain radiating off of her.

"I don't think you're a failure…" he whispered, "Why do you think you are one?"

Instead of answering his question directly, the black and white clouds began collecting into a single gray mass above his head until they formed a screen. Steven watched as the events of the past several weeks played before him from Garnet's perspective. First was the recent attack from Adamite and Cinnabar, the fusion fighting the fiery invader with all she had while trying to keep an eye on Steven trading blows with his mudslinging foe. When Cinnabar resorted to lighting the beach house on fire, Steven suddenly felt a weight drop in his stomach. He began mentally kicking himself and trying to find a solution, but nothing came to mind. Instead he watched himself offer himself to the intruders in exchange for Greg's safety.

Garnet's head dipped even lower as she felt the terrible feelings all over again.

As the memory concluded, Steven began hearing two voices arguing back and forth. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see the figures of Ruby and Sapphire standing in lava and snow respectively. They both shared a sense of responsibility, but for different reasons.

"How could I miss such a path?" asked Sapphire, her single eye practically popping out of her head in horror.

"It's not that, I should have fought harder! I could've taken down that fire freak myself, but I didn't!" screamed Ruby, literally slamming her head into the ground in anger.

"I should have known Steven could have handled himself… The odds of him getting hurt were slim," Sapphire chastised herself again as icicles began appearing around the bottom of her dress.

"It's those rotten gems' fault! How could they just endanger someone like that?!" shouted Ruby as her feet began to ignite.

Back and forth the two went, Sapphire seeing so many other ways to change the future and Ruby blaming herself for not fighting hard enough or smart enough to stop the situation altogether. Either way, they felt equally responsible for their failure.

Steven stood in the middle of their continued screaming as Garnet was bowing before the screen which began playing a new memory; Steven's capture by Aquamarine and Topaz.

The boy felt bile rise in his mouth as he watched Garnet remain silent as the smug nuisance and her stoic accomplice threatened the humans they captured, left all of them helpless to stop them and forcing Steven to play Spartacus to save his friends. Steven could literally feel his heart tear in two as he flew away into space, possibly out of the gems' lives forever.

This only meant more screaming out of Ruby about those no-good Homeworld gems and more criticism from Sapphire about all the ways to avoid the catastrophe. Steven tried plugging his ears, but between the heartache of Garnet and both her components he began to feel his head pound and spirit failing.

The scenes continued, snatched from millennia Garnet has been together on Earth. Hundreds of failures swarmed her mind at once, pushing the fusion into depression. Steven tried to push the despair overwhelming his heart, but wondered if there was anything he could say to fix this.

* * *

Adamite looked back as she rocketed up a steep hill with Steven still clinging to her back. His eyes remained closed, but his mumbling had stopped. He had also begun shedding small droplets of water from his vision spheres, causing her to debate if this was of concern. She quickly decided to continue on her way as their destination was only minutes away. Cinnabar continued rocketing behind her as a massive fireball, unaware of Steven's current state and more concerned with getting the hang of that song their hostage was humming earlier.

* * *

After several minutes of back and forth between the two science buffs, the Crystal Gems worked on an external power source for their tracker since Garnet was still out of commission. Pearl had thankfully recovered from her earlier collapse and, after sneezing several times to clear the sand from her nose, was carefully constructing the device with Peridot assisting her. Amethyst and Lapis were once again on collecting parts from the area, though this time Amethyst was much more open to parting with her collection of junk if it meant saving Steven.

That left Greg with nothing to do but keep an eye on the unmoving Garnet in case any new development happened. He used this time to pray that his son was still in one piece while also wishing he had some way to properly contribute to their efforts besides keeping vigil over an unconscious gem.

Many uneventful minutes later the device was almost complete when Greg noticed something was wrong with Garnet's gems.

"Hey guys, you know how her gems was glowing earlier? Well, now they're not."

Confused, the four remaining gems gathered to confirm that, indeed, the dazzling lights from her hands were fading at a rapid pace. While Amethyst and Greg brightened up and expected Garnet to return to consciousness, the other three pondered what this new development could mean. Their skepticism was earned when the light fully died down to reveal both her gems had lost all color.

The five were uneasy seeing this, none of them having ever seen a gem being drained like this. Said uneasiness quickly grew to full on panic when they saw Garnet's left foot start fading into nothingness.

"What in the world?!" shouted Pearl, horrified by such a sight. Amethyst reached over and tried grabbing the space where her toe was, only to feel nothing but air. She considered redoubling her screaming efforts, but worried that might speed up the process.

"Okay, this is getting really weird! What do we do now?" asked Lapis, hugging herself out of fear she would evaporate as well.

"Well… it appears to be a very gradual process. For all we know this could take several hours. In the meantime, we must continue our project in order to recover Steven." Peridot tried putting on a brave face, but even she squirmed watching the scene before her. She had never wanted one of her hunches to be correct as right now otherwise their most powerful member might vanish into thin air at any second.

**Next time, plenty of things come to a head! Garnet's mental struggle, Adamite and Cinnabar's plan and rescuing Steven. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	17. Fire and Ice

**And now, the moment you've been waiting for! No more delays! It's time to get to the meat of things, all the answers up ahead...**

***SLAP!***

**Sorry, that was me cutting myself off before I stalled any longer... Onward!**

It was almost midnight when Adamite and Cinnabar arrived with an unconscious Steven to a desolate plateau past the border of Delmarva. Their destination was an unsuspecting outcropping they discovered among their endless years wandering the world with nothing of interest but a single large stone slightly larger than the two gems. The stone was once an ornate artifact used in the days of the original gem war adorned with delicate carvings painted in vibrant hues, but have long since faded thanks to years of exposure to the elements.

"Keep an eye on him," commanded Adamite as she lowered Steven to the ground. She had to focus her abilities is she wanted to restore something so decrepit without damaging it.

Cinnabar walked over to where their hybrid hostage was lying on the ground. The flow of water from his eyes had stopped, but he was shivering fiercely. For reasons she still did not fully understand, this made her upset. In only one day she had grown to care over some random boy they were supposed to kidnap and hold as their ticket back to their old life, yet he made their travel so much more entertaining. She placed a hand on his cheek and pumped a small amount of warmth. It ceased his quivering and brought an earnest smile to her face.

* * *

As Greg watched four frenetic alien women try to finish a cell-phone locator in order to recover his son still in the clutches of two unknown gems that had powers equivalent to a certain cartoon he enjoyed, he realized how he rarely applied the millions he had practically. He could easily buy a house in full, yet he still lived in his van. He could even afford all the best insurance policies and upgrades to make it more comfortable, yet it remained the same when he was trying to sell CDs out of the back door as a wannabe rock star. He could also restart his musical career with all the experience he has gained and easily fund any expenses, but he kept those dreams behind him. As this night dragged on, however, Greg swore to himself there would be three items he would purchase that morning: A repaired beach house with his own room in it, some yoga lessons, and a coffee maker.

The first so he could finally watch his son in person (plus now he could actually hire _employees_ for his business, yet another novel concept that he realized he could afford now,) the second to control his stress and the third so the next time a rescue operation pushes into the dead of night he could stay awake.

_"At least my stress is good for _something_ at this point,"_ he thought bitterly.

While Greg was preoccupied with financial planning and self-loathing, the gems were still bustling as their apparatus neared completion. Pearl and Peridot were carefully balancing speed and precision as they put on the final steps to make their device work while Amethyst and Lapis kept vigil over Garnet, the unconscious fusion now missing most of her legs which slowly disappeared into the ether.

After several hours of straight work, the two mechanical gems finally deemed their project complete. Amethyst and Lapis managed to take their eyes off of their comatose comrade along with a beatdown father and watched with bated breath as Pearl activated the tangled mess of wires, dissected cell phones and a tiny generator with a repurposed light switch. Within seconds the phones blared to life and sent out signals across the various satellites over the planet and after minutes which felt like eternity to the onlookers, Peridot's tablet displayed a set of coordinates that revealed Steven was somewhere in the Adirondack Mountains bordering several states. After a quick round of cheers and remembering a warp pad was only a few miles from there, the Crystal Gems ran off to recover their beloved goofball. Greg stayed behind to watch over Garnet, grumbling that he was also getting life insurance after this was all said and done.

* * *

As the two parties of gems rushed towards their goals, Steven and Garnet were still together in the fusion's mindscape which was quickly unraveling at the seams. The surreal harmony of the volcanic winter was becoming a boiling maelstrom that was threatening to swallow both of their minds whole in a tidal wave of emotional strife. Fire and ice met in a steaming meltdown as plumes of magma and waves of freezing water battered the small circle of black rock holding the only denizens of this place. Somewhere in the midst of their mutual angst, Ruby and Sapphire fled and were nowhere to be seen.

The once proud Garnet, a guardian of Earth so unshakable that all but the greatest dangers fazed her. Now all of the pressure and turmoil she has experienced over five thousand years were threatening to crush her spirit and send her into oblivion.

As for Steven, he was desperately yelling for Garnet to snap out of her delusion as pain racked his entire body. His ability to connect with others seemed like a blessing most of the time, but now it was a horrible curse as Garnet's crippling doubt and sorrow was wrecking his entire system. His throat was sore from the constant yelling and his tear ducts ran dry, but he kept his sight on his comrade as the sights and sounds of countless mistakes blared around him. All the torment and anguish he was suffering was unbearable, but he would not let Garnet fall victim to her own mind. He tried lifting his foot, but it felt like he was lifting a boulder. He forced his body to cooperate and managed to take the first step; refusing to let this suffering continue.

* * *

The quartet of Amethyst, Lapis, Pearl and Peridot arrived in the Adirondack Mountains with the green tech whiz in front with her old tablet showing the coordinates of their target. Lapis took to the sky to scan the area for their enemies and any water she could use in the upcoming fight. The group may want a peaceful resolution to this whole mess, but all of them knew those two would not release their hostage willingly. With Lapis airborne and Peridot keeping focused on navigating, Pearl and Amethyst were left to their own devices as they closed the distance.

"So…How are you feeling?" asked Amethyst while scratching her neck in an awkward attempt to cut through the palpable tension.

"At this point I am so exhausted, a flying whale could drop out of the sky and even I would barely bat an eye. I just want this whole ordeal to be over." Pearl had already brought out her spear in preparation.

"Heh, I could have used that when I spilled grape juice all over the couch. Would have saved a lot of squawking," The purple jokester noticed her companion formed a smile for a split second and decided to continue.

"I mean, I wish it didn't take Steven getting kidnapped to get you like this, but at least it won't happen again. And he's safe this time." Pearl stopped in her tracks hearing that.

"I hope so…I just wonder how she would-"

"Pearl, stop. You know thinking like that is not helping."

True to her word, the spindly swordswoman could not raise an objection and continued along the winding rocky trails, occasionally hopping over a crevice or moving an inconvenient hunk of rock along the way. According to Peridot, they were only a few thousand yards away.

"Good job with that cell phone tech-tracker. Smart idea."

"Thanks. I'm more surprised Greg thought of it. I wonder how he's taking all of this."

Amethyst shrugged as they began to climb in silence with their green guide hopping on Pearl's back as they ascended a steep cliff. They soon spotted their two targets with Cinnabar guarding Steven while Adamite was tampering with an odd cylindrical stone with a large hole missing from its center.

"What's the earth chick doing?" asked Amethyst.

"I can't tell from this distance, but that might be a large wailing stone she's manipulating…Rose planted dozens of them during the war," responded Pearl.

"Wow, you all had some real archaic technology back then," commented Peridot, earning a stern glare from Pearl.

"Not that they weren't effective!" backpedaled the minute techie, "I mean, even after millennia of exposure to erosion it's still standing and I recall Lapis used a more compact one to contact you from Homeworld so it must have incredible signal strength!" Peridot chuckled nervously until the white gem stopped shooting daggers at her.

With her temper soothed, Pearl motioned the others to slowly approach the two making as little noise as possible. As both of them were preoccupied, the three made their way over and saw Adamite was indeed using her terrakinesis to slowly mend the cracks and faults in the ancient communication device. Due to how precise the process was, however, it was clear that even for her it would take hours to properly restore. As they were ready to launch a surprise attack on the two, Lapis flew back to the peak and landed in plain view of Cinnabar.

"Lapis?! What are you doing here?" sputtered the red rogue.

"I…came here to find Steven. Is he still okay?" Lapis noticed, much to her delight, that the boy did not have a scratch on him.

"He has been out for a long time now, but he's fine otherwise. We're not just giving him up, you know."

Lapis sighed, already expecting that rebuttal. "How long are you going to keep him? He needs food and water to survive, you know."

"He could be with us for a long time, but he's been very cooperative so far. We'll make sure he survives otherwise Rose Quartz will not surrender."

"There's just one thing I don't get, though. Why do you two want to go back to Homeworld so badly?" Lapis sat next to her red doppelganger and placed a hand on the still resting Steven.

"Because we want to be useful again," she answered as if it were the easiest question in the world, "Adamite and I can go back to doing missions to help the Diamonds!"

Lapis clinched her teeth hearing that, the pure eagerness in her voice sounding as painful as nails on a chalkboard.

"You know, Cinnabar, I was back on Homeworld too. I flew all the way back there myself. And when I got there…" She noticed Adamite was glancing in her direction, awaiting her answer as well as the scarlet arsonist.

"They…forced me to come back here along with two other gems to be an informant for them."

"That's understandable, especially if you brought up the still-active rebellion on this planet," stated Adamite as she resumed work on the wailing stone.

"Yeah, well, they also put me in a cell like a prisoner. And that's not the first time they did this either…"

"What? Why would they do that? You didn't say you were part of their group, right?" wondered Cinnabar.

"Because Homeworld doesn't care about gems. If anything is not absolutely perfect to them, they throw it away! You know Peridot once talked to Yellow Diamond herself and told her about all the unique resources on Earth after staying here for so long? Yellow Diamond rejected it because she just wants the Earth to blow up!"

Adamite scoffed at that suggestion. "That is preposterous. A Diamond, of all gems, would never act in such an illogical, foolhardy manner when presented with a situation where she would have everything to gain and nothing to lose aside from some minor altercations with the Crystal Gems. I do not say this to demean your…compatriots, but a large-scale invasion would annihilate all of them in no time at all. She would know all of the risks and rewards involved, so why act so rashly?"

"Because the Diamonds are jerks! They don't care about you, or any other gem!" Lapis shouted as she got into Adamite's face and forced her to make eye contact. She noticed how her face, identical to her own in every way except expression, stared back at her with no emotion. "They want to blow this place up because they don't _like_ it! They aren't geniuses! They are overpowered children who are still whining and pouting because they didn't get what they wanted! That gem war was thousands of years ago, and they are still sore losers over it even though it's the _only _time they've ever lost out of tens of thousands of planets! Why would you honestly want to work for them?!"

Instead of a proper answer, Adamite looked her blue counterpart in the eyes with an inkling of pity and a great deal of disappointment. Her thick arms pushed the scrawnier gem away with ease as she returned to her work.

"I am sorry for you Lapis Lazuli," she muttered with her back turned, "You have truly lost your way. You are no longer the loyal partner I worked with for so long. Out of what respect I have left for you I will not force you to abandon this planet you have grown attached to, but I will not defend you or defy my Diamond when they inevitably come to shatter you for your insolence. I will give you one chance to flee now, but if we ever meet again I will act as a proper Homeworld gem and attack a traitor such as yourself. Now go while I resume my work."

"I'm not leaving here without Steven!"

Cinnabar stood after watching their confrontation sitting down. Her hands were already igniting as she shared Adamite's disappointment of seeing a long-time friend turn on her, but lacked any emotional subtlety and looked ready for a fight.

"You think we're going to listen to you after that?! And besides, you're here all by yourself with no water!"

"Wrong." Lapis need not say more as a massive pool of water, enough to fill several actual pools, floated above her from several mountain streams and ponds to right above their heads, distorting the moonlight and covering them in shadow.

The other three Crystal Gems, having watched the whole encounter in stunned silence, took their cue and rushed forward with Pearl and Amethyst jumping into battle while Peridot ran towards the unconscious Steven. Lapis caused tendrils of water and fly towards both her opponents, but Adamite tunneled behind her while Cinnabar turned them to steam with streams of flame.

* * *

As their battle was beginning, though, another was being waged by the Steven Universe as he walked onwards towards the near-broken Garnet despite his body screaming for him to stop. Every inch he put between him and her caused throes of agony in every fiber of his being, but he refused to stop.

The mental landscape around them was still crumbling, the ring of black rock beneath them being the only land remaining as pools of molten lava and frigid water met in a violent storm. Snow and ash fell from the sickly violet sky in a black and white downpour that threatened to swallow everything.

"Garnet, please get up!" he pleaded ten feet away from her, "You can't lose yourself now! We still need you!"

For the first time since her initial breakdown, Garnet spoke. "Why? So I can fail you again? Like I failed you, the Earth, Rose…"

"Garnet, you are not a failure! You have done your best to protect me and everyone else that matters!" he argued as he felt a second wind driving him forward. He blocked out the freezing flakes and burning ash falling in his face as he felt his chest warm up as his vigor returned.

"Look at me, Garnet! You're getting upset about the past when you can't do anything to change it! I get it, you feel you could have done better, but that's not important now! What's important is that we look forward, not backward!"

Garnet's head rose and saw Steven staring into her eyes, amazed by the ferocity of his gaze. The blizzard around them started to subside and the steam began clearing away to reveal a ravaged series of black islets in a boiling ocean.

"Don't beat yourself over it all, it won't help with anything! You have so many incredible things in the past and you still can!"

The screen of clouds from before returned, only now above both of them as practically every memory of Garnet played out in rapid succession. While many had her in the heat of battle, others were her just providing advice or being a reassuring presence in troubling times. For the first time in days, Garnet could feel her spirit lifting. As she rose, Ruby and Sapphire returned and stood behind her, holding hands as they remembered all the amazing accomplishments they have had together with the blue cyclops knowing for a fact that countless more could be on the horizon.

"Garnet, you told me that I shouldn't worry about every little thing in the future and live my life! Now I'm asking you to do the same thing. Don't worry about what might happen, but do your best to make it the future you want! We've been through a lot together, but we always got through it and we can do it again! I know that, and so does everyone else! That's why we look up to you Garnet, so we can be in that great future with you!"

The fusion was beaming as she soaked in his words, the world around them reflecting her mood as the volcanic winter returned in all its surreal beauty. The red and blue resumed their ethereal dance above them and the majestic beauty of icy rivers and lava streams came into focus. The two managed to wave goodbye to each other before they began to fade back into the real world.

* * *

Greg had briefly walked away to get a cup of coffee to force himself awake until his son came home and to continue watching over Garnet. The fusion was halfway to evaporating into nothingness, her legs barely visible and her hair had begun disappearing as well. Her gems were still gray and her eyes closed. Greg felt utterly powerless as he could not look at his house or else he would remember his part in those two gems kidnapping his son. If he looked down, he saw a long-time friend of his slowly disappear into the ether with no way he could even slow it down. If he looked up towards the sky, he was reminded of how Homeworld had a death wish out for his son and the entire planet at large.

Just as Greg was about to give up and return to his van, the blinding lights from Garnet's gems sprung to life with a vengeance. The drowsy dad was shocked right back into being fully awake as the red and blue lights spread from the fusion's palms up her arms until it consumed her entire form. Once her whole body was reformed, her form shone with the intensity of a polychromatic sun as she was lifted off the sand and several inches into the air. In only a few seconds Garnet stood, reborn as if nothing had happened.

"Garnet?! What happened to you? What was that?" he began spouting, trying to wrap his mind over the lightshow he just witnessed, but the towering fusion wasted no time dashing straight towards the house. She literally broke down the door and hopped onto the warp pad, letting her future vision guide her to her Steven.

Greg looked on and, after what may have been the worst day of his life, passed out from all the hectic gem chaos around him.

* * *

Steven awoke to find himself in the middle of a battle between Adamite and Cinnabar and the Crystal Gems minus Garnet. Amethyst and Peridot were currently contending with the scarlet-skinned arsonist who was bombarding the two with fireballs of every shape and size. From tiny embers made to upset their tactics to spheres large enough to engulf them, Cinnabar was frantically trying and failing to hit Amethyst who was spin-dashing and leaping out of every strike. The red gem stood between her and Steven with the obvious goal of protecting her hostage whom she had to admit was not bad company. Peridot was both loving and dreading her role as a distraction as she insulted and taunted Cinnabar to draw her literal fire away from Amethyst while she tried to ensnare her foe.

That left Adamite to content with Pearl and a very peeved Lapis Lazuli who was trying to pound her ex-comrade with globs of water from her massive reservoir. Adamite was forced to exert herself more than she had in centuries in order to avoid the watery missiles and contend with Pearl who was nimbly dodging and circling around every blockade and attack she summoned from below with her usual dexterity. Adamite was gradually being pushed away from the wailing stone and even with her tunneling ability, the onslaught would simply pick up where it left off.

Steven simply took it all in and debated with himself whether he should jump into the fray as well. On the one hand, these two rogues abducted him and had a clear loyalty to Homeworld meaning they would fall under the "bad guy" label. On the other hand, he had spent hours bonding with them and they clearly meant no harm to any innocents. Not only that, they made good on their promise to leave them unharmed when both of them could have easily ended him.

Eventually his decision was made for him as Adamite, realizing she was once again being overwhelmed by superior numbers, forced a ring of rock to rise around Steven up to his neck. Unlike her encounter with the ruby captain from earlier, though, the earth gem left it at that and made no plans to severely harm him unless necessary.

"That is enough," she commanded, "We still have possession over your ally. Surrender now and we will ensure he is unharmed until we acquire Rose Quartz."

"Hey, come on!" griped Amethyst, feeling an awful sense of déjà vu, "That's not fair! First you almost roast his dad, now you're going to bury him?! You two are sick!"

"Fair is irrelevant. We have a clear goal in mind to reunite ourselves with Homeworld so we may be of use to the Diamonds once again. This boy is a key bargaining chip so that we may convince Rose Quartz to surrender for her crimes and for our acceptance back into the Diamonds' graces. We do not wish to harm him, but we will if you do not surrender immediately."

As Adamite tried to prove her point by forcing the rock around Steven to tighten, a strange thud could be heard in the distance. The entire party, friend and foe alike, was caught off guard as the sound grew louder until a figure came into view bounding towards them, leaping dozens of feet into the air off of mountaintops and ridges of rock until it landed square in the middle of them all. After the dust from the impact settled, Garnet stood there as calm as could be.

"Garnet, you're okay!" cheered Steven as the rest of the Crystal Gems stood dumbfounded at their de facto leader's sudden recovery. Adamite and Cinnabar, on the other hand, were less than impressed.

"I was questioning why you were not here previously," stated Adamite as she and her partner readied themselves for another round, "From Steven's words I would assume you were incapacitated."

"Pretty much," replied Garnet, as frank as ever, "Now I'll give you both one chance. Release Steven now or I will personally take you down."

"Hah, really?!" boasted Cinnabar, "It took all of you Crystal Gems to beat us last time and even that didn't work! And now you think you can beat us both yourself? Not going to happen!" To properly start the battle, the flame-throwing gem sent a fireball straight at Garnet's face. The fusion responded by raising her left hand and catching it without so much as flinching. In only seconds the ball was fully extinguished in her grip.

(Cue Epic Theme Song: Unfinished Battle from Xenoblade Chronicles)

As Cinnabar stood dumbfounded, Garnet let out a hearty chuckle. "Somehow…I knew you'd say that."

The fusion took off like a rocket straight towards her red foe, summoning her gauntlets in a literal flash, but her fist punch was met by a wall of rock intercepting her fist. Garnet plowed right through the barrier and landed a hit straight to Cinnabar's stupefied face.

"Hmph. Not bad, but you're going to need more than that," she taunted, even goading Adamite by beckoning her forward. The normally aloof gem forced her temper down as she levitated several dozen stones to fly at Garnet. Each one was dodged or deflected without a second's delay much to Adamite's bafflement.

Cinnabar tried to capitalize on the opportunity by blindsiding her from the back, both her hands engulfed in flame and ready to strike only to find Garnet's foot sweeping under her legs forcing her to jump over her.

"What's going on?!" yelled the scarlet arsonist as she got back on her feet, "It's like she knows everything we do before we do it!"

"Heh, you're not far off on that," laughed Garnet before coming at the two again. The duo split up to throw her off and launched volley of stones and embers only for Garnet to leap out of harm's way, forcing the elemental gems to dodge as well.

While the two-on-one battle continued, the other Crystal Gems were amazed at what they were beholding.

"Dang, Garnet's rocking those chumps! She must have had a really good nap!" cheered Amethyst, elated to see such a masterful butt-kicking.

"Indeed, her bravado seems fully restored but how?" questioned Pearl, "It's as if her being unconscious revitalized her. Any ideas, Peridot?"

"At this point, I am merely grateful this debacle is over. We can analyze this situation later!" The diminutive engineer was too swept up in the excitement about finally seeing these two getting their comeuppance to properly answer.

Garnet's opponents, however, were only feeling frustrated at how one gem was making a mockery of them. Adamite was trying every formation and tactic she could think of, even trying to blindside her larger opponent, but Garnet shrugged off almost everything she threw at her. Her compatriot was doing even worse as Cinnabar was futilely throwing everything she had at Garnet only for it to be dodged or completely pointless. Her rage was growing with every missed shot and her pointed hair was literally smoking in anger.

After several dozen more shots missed their tall yet surprisingly limber target, the arsonist gem was at her wit's end. She had to face the reality that her pyrokinesis was not affecting Garnet in the least. Her eyes gradually moved to the assembly of gems still watching the brawl in awe. She could see Steven was still off the side, not having moved an inch since the fighting started. With no hesitation, she opened both her palms and summoned the largest column of fire she could muster, enough to swallow all four gems whole and then some. She did not care anymore, not even Adamite could talk her out of it. The immense stream of fire was only seconds away from the gems, all of them turning to face the oncoming inferno in horror. All of them were frozen to the spot, some already wincing from how much it would hurt, others deducing how much heat her gemstone could take before literally melting. Steven was about to cry in agony, half ready to leap into the flame's path to stop it with his shield and talk Cinnabar down. Anything to save his family from being incinerated…

…Then the flames just stopped. In mid-air. Still hot and perfectly capable of scorching, but completely still. Even Adamite's jaw dropped at this spectacular defiance of physics.

Everyone gradually turned to see Garnet extending her left hand, a confident smile plastered on her face. She willed the fire to move towards her and slowly the flames entered the ruby in her palm. The two could have taken the opportunity to attack, but she was mostly certain her opponents were too shocked by the revelation to take advantage of her spectacle. Neither rogue elemental moved as the fire was slowly consumed in its entirety, leaving only some overheated terrain as proof it had ever existed.

Silence reigned for several seconds, the only sounds being those of any wildlife on nearby mountaintops and a gentle night wind. Then Adamite, all her confidence and analytical nature gone, dropped to her muscular knees in awe.

"H-H-How…?" was the only word she could utter.

"What, your friend isn't the only fire manipulator out there," Garnet replied conversationally, "I can do it too."

Holding out her hand once again, she pushed out her own geyser of fire straight from her palm. It may not have been anywhere near as large as Cinnabar's from before, but it was hot and fast enough to sweep the dazed Adamite away, screaming in shock and pain as the flames sent her flying into a nearby peak where she stopped with a harsh crash before sliding down like a ragdoll.

Having witnessed her most defining power being rendered completely useless and her partner being taken down so easily, Cinnabar made the most logical move at this point; run for her life.

She did not make it far, however, as Garnet had another new trick up her sleeve. She opened her right hand and from her sapphire flew an icy wind. In only seconds it caught up to the fleeing gem and left her frozen solid. Satisfied that the strenuous work was all done, Garnet strolled up while whistling a certain tune she taught another fusion some months ago. She calmly walked around to the front where an utterly terrified Cinnabar was too consumed with terror to try thawing herself out. She was more concerned that Garnet had her gauntlets put away for the first time in the whole battle.

"Hey Cinnabar," she asked casually. With her mouth still frozen, Cinnabar could only reply with an unsure "Uh-huh?"

"You lost," the fusion stated blankly. The frozen gem answered with a second, more downtrodden "Uh-huh."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to shatter you." A relieved sigh came from the gem turned ice-sculpture.

"But I am going to bubble you." She summoned her right gauntlet and wound up her punch as Cinnabar let out several terrified squeaks, hoping that would make her hesitate. Her cries fell on deaf ears as Garnet rammed a harsh punch right into Cinnabar's chest. With the numbing cold and intense pain of the blow proving too much for her form, she was reduced to a circular red gemstone now sitting in a pile of ice shards. The fusion made good on her promise to keep her whole and stored in a translucent red bubble. She sent it back to the temple with a flick of her hand before calmly leaping to a lower peak where Adamite was still recovering from her flash frying.

The green hijacker was still splayed out in agony on the nearest cliff where she crashed after being blasted by Garnet's fire, her long head of pale-yellow hair completely charred. While she may not have any skin, her entire form was in burning pain. She was only barely keeping her eyes open and when she spotted Garnet strolling towards her, she desperately tried using her powers. She managed to move a pebble a few inches before Garnet reached her and hefted her up by her broad shoulders.

"Hello there." There was no malice in her voice, but the tight grip on Adamite's shoulders let her know she intended to hurt her.

"You displayed…none of these abilities when we first fought," coughed Adamite with the last of her energy, "How…did you develop entirely new abilities in such little time?"

"Because of something you should have learned after all the time you spent on Earth. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet."

Adamite could not bear to speak an answer so Garnet replied for her.

"We are full of surprises. Especially when one of our own is in danger…" she let a trace of venom enter her voice as both her hands lit up with electricity. Adamite let out one last pained scream as thousands of volt racked her form before she finally could not stand anymore and retreated into her gem. Garnet quickly bubbled the pentagonal green stone and sent it back to the temple.

With all the chaos said and done, the confident fusion leaped back to the others who were still rooted to the same spot. Before the others could ask her any questions, Garnet made her way to Steven who looked at her in awe and wonder. She kneeled down to his level and gave him the biggest hug she could muster without harming him and whispered a heartfelt thank you into his ear for what he had done for her. The youth merely hugged her back and fell into her arms as hours of constant travel and his immersive trip into Garnet's mind caught up with him and fell asleep instantly. The fusion happily carried him home with the other four gems still following behind, all eager for some normalcy in their lives.

**AND... DONE! About time too, this is one of my favorite chapters and now it's here for all to enjoy! Tune in next time for some calmer moments after all this action.**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	18. Rebuild

**Now that the rogue gems are handled, it's time for something almost as exciting: redecorating!**

With Adamite and Cinnabar safely contained in the temple with hundreds of other bubbled gems, Steven and his family could finally focus on something besides imminent danger. Most notably, the fact that the beach house was well-beyond repair. With the damage from Cinnabar's fire on top of Lapis' flooding, the crew said it was a miracle the structure was still standing. They were also perplexed how the front door was ripped clean off its hinges, but that remained a topic for water-cooler conversations since that was the least of the house's problems.

Steven missed most of the major reconstruction as he spent almost a full-day asleep once he was rescued. The Crystal Gems and Greg were merely grateful to have him back and let him snooze away in his caterpillar sleeping bag in the back of Greg's van. As long as he was in their sight, they were fine if he did not wake up for days.

It might have been for the best, though, as the majority of the day he was asleep involved moving all of his personal belongings out of his thankfully undamaged room and demolishing what was left of his home. Greg was relieved to hear insurance would help cover the costs (though he did omit how the damage was done by two alien women to avoid a massive headache), he was still disappointed to see the home he and the gems built so long ago fall apart. What little cynicism he had in him believed it would fall eventually due to the Crystal Gems' activities, but he wished it did not have to involve his son being put in mortal danger.

When Steven rose at sunrise the next day, he saw all of his belongings sitting in a pile near the edge of a cliff. Aside from his bed and television, all of them were perfectly packed into boxes and bins by Pearl. The motherly gem, along with some young, burly movers, were hauling everything into a nearby truck to be put in Greg's storage locker in town until their new abode was complete.

Once that was done and everything salvageable was removed, Garnet and Amethyst began "assisting" the demolition crew. This meant Garnet giving the purple wild-child full reign to tear the house to the ground. As Amethyst bashed and smashed everything in sight, Garnet was ensuring no collateral damage would occur by standing guard over Greg and crew members who were now standing idly by as their job was being done for them. Aside from the occasional stray piece of rubble flying at them, this was the easiest job they have ever had.

That left Peridot and Lapis Lazuli simply enjoying the pleasant morning on the beach. The former barn-mates were soaking in the sun though Lapis was also casually shaping the water into various shapes to gain a more intricate control over her powers. While her confrontation with Adamite had shaken off any ennui left over from her nightmare, she now had a desire to improve her abilities in order to better fight off any threats to her new friends. While her making water cubes and pyramids was intriguing, Peridot was doing so more to fight her itch to analyze Garnet's new abilities. While she had herself discovered a new power inside of her, her investigative mind was going wild at the thought of being able to bring out new abilities out on a whim. Also, Greg had recently gotten the bill from Funland about the broken pinball machine and was currently giving her the stink eye. She would rather save that confrontation for later.

As the house literally came crashing down thanks to Amethyst's wrestling maneuvers, they began collecting the debris along with the professionals. Greg took the opportunity to walk over to his awakened son and welcome him back to the world.

"Hey Schtu-ball! Glad to see you finally back! How do you feel?"

"A little weirded out…" he replied as he crawled out of his sleeping bag. While he was glad to be back among loved ones, he was not sure how to feel about those two being stuck in bubbles.

"Steven!" cheered Pearl as she spotted him cognizant once more, "Thank goodness! I hope you don't mind all of the changes we have going on, but I'm afraid the house is beyond repair. Now that you are here, let's get you fixed up!"

Steven was confused at this, only for the necessities he neglected on his unintended road trip to pile on. He caught a whiff of himself after not showering for two days, felt his stomach roar upon not being properly fed for so long and he desperately needed a bathroom. After taking a quick leak in the ocean, something even Pearl could not fault him for after all that has happened, the three took off for somewhere he could be washed and fed - the Mahesweran household.

* * *

One quick drive across town later and Steven was greeted by Doug, Priyanka, and a very relieved Connie. As much as his bespectacled buddy wanted to hug him, his odor made her keep a safe distance. She led him upstairs to their bathroom where he relished in the hot water and fragrant body wash. As he stepped out, he breather in relief as he dressed in a pair of clothes Pearl set aside for him. Once he was dressed and no longer smelled like he took a day-long trek through the mountains he went downstairs to where the parents of the house treated to him a plate of pancakes and fruit salad to fill his eager stomach. After offering his sincere thanks for their hospitality, he found all of the Crystal Gems crowded into the living room along with Greg and Connie ready to clear the air about what exactly happened with those two.

After several minutes of explaining himself, Steven apprehensively looked at Connie who had gone completely still since he mentioned his ploy to get Adamite and Cinnabar to leave his father unharmed.

"Steven…" she grumbled as she walked next to him, "I thought we talked about this…"

In only seconds she stood a few inches from him with their respective parents and the gems standing around them in a circle. Steven was praying to himself that someone would step in case she got too agitated.

It came as quite a surprise when she wrapped her arms around him, any malice she may have had gone, and silently shed a tear when he returned her affection.

"I'm just glad you're okay…" she whispered, as everyone around them breathed a sigh of relief. Greg and the Maheswerans were particularly moved at seeing their children embrace and each began to wonder (or dread in Doug's case) if it was time to have that special talk with their kids about certain changes.

Eventually the two broke up their display and moved to the large floral couch along the wall. Doug and Priyanka stayed inside the entrance to the kitchen while Greg leaned on the front door leaving the five gems to form a circle as Garnet began an unofficial meeting to discuss what to do now.

"Alright, now that those two are put away and Steven is safe, you have all been caught up on what had happened."

"Yeah, and I can't believe those two dragged you all the way into the mountains to call Homeworld," grumbled Lapis, "At least they kept their promise to keep him okay."

"From a logical standpoint, they had every reason to acquiesce," explained Peridot, "Steven kept them in the dark about the real whereabouts of Rose Quartz and manipulated their limited knowledge to his benefit. Frankly, I am more surprised he devised such a ruse by himself."

"Yeah, Steven's a spy now! With super gem-enhancing powers!" cheered Amethyst, causing the young boy in question to blush.

"Yes, it appears so," mused Pearl, "Once the house is rebuilt, it's vital we watch over him more to see if any other new abilities show up. Plus, he still needs to learn how to use our respective weapons properly."

"If you guys want to do that, you could use the space where the barn used to be," said Greg, "I mean, the building might be trashed, but my family still owns the land. Consider it your own personal training ground."

"Thanks, Greg. At least there's nothing there to trash anymore!" joked Amethyst as she hung upside-down from the arm of the couch. While Lapis blushed at that thought, the others were all in high spirits. The group offered one last round of thanks to Connie's family for their generosity and took off in Greg's van with Steven up front and all the gems crammed in the back sans Lapis who flew behind them.

"Connie, are you sure you're alright?" Doug asked his daughter as she stood at the window for several minutes after the van left their street.

"Dad, I'll be honest, I got really scared again. Steven may have kept himself safe, but what if next time this happens he isn't so lucky? What if he gets really hurt or worse?"

"Then he has a solid group behind him to look after him," reassured Priyanka as she placing a hand on her shoulder, "Including a best friend who will risk everything for him." That brought a smile to Connie's face.

"But if you throw yourself into danger like that, young lady, you'll be in serious trouble!" And with that terrifying thought in her mind, Connie ran upstairs to do more schoolwork.

* * *

That afternoon, Greg and all of the gems minus Garnet made their way to the plot of land formally housing the DeMayo storage barn-turned alien refuge. Their first order of business was to clean up the debris off the structure and the two alien ships Lapis crushed. While Peridot was upset seeing her old home demolished, she gladly ogled any piece of gem tech that could be used for later. Lapis kept Pumpkin company as the poor gourd was deeply shaken by the events of the past few days. Steven was glad to see him out and about after spending several days under his bed, terrified by the flooding and house catching fire.

After several hours of moving rubble, salvaging _Camp Pining Hearts_ tapes, Pumpkin scampering around, and Amethyst calling dibs on bits and bobs she saw fit for her ever-growing collection, all that remained of the barn was the large pool Peridot made out of the tunnel from the Cluster mission.

As the sun was beginning to set, Greg hung up his phone. "Alright, I just got off the phone with the cleanup crew. They'll be here around noon tomorrow to haul the rest away."

"Excellent, Greg," complimented Pearl, "Your assistance is greatly appreciated."

"Well, someone has to clean up these messes, right?" the father chuckled. He tried to play it off as a joke, but they could still hear a trace of sadness in his voice.

"Dad, are you alright?" asked Steven.

"Yeah, it's nothing major, Schtu-ball. Glad to help any way I can…" Steven could tell something was bugging his father but felt no reason to pry and simply walked off to resume the sorting of rubble from anything salvageable.

The process continued until night came and Steven was yawning profusely. Since the Maheswerans offered the boy their couch as long as their house was being constructed, Steven and Greg drove off to resume their work in the morning. After another hearty breakfast with Connie's family, the Universes returned to the pasture to find the gems all assembled with Garnet back from whatever she was working on in the temple.

"Hey Garnet," greeted Greg, "What's up?"

"I discovered something, and I needed all of you to hear it," she replied, as frank as ever.

"She would not give any specifics until you two arrived," grumbled Peridot, her patience being tested as she wanted to get her hands on any new information, "Apparently, breakfast is a luxury she thought you could afford."

"Chill out Peri, you don't know how good a morning is until you scarf down some cereal and orange juice first thing in the morning," smirked Amethyst, clearly having the same craving.

"Besides that, it is a necessary part of a healthy lifestyle as it promotes a healthy metabolism. Steven needs it to be at his best," said Pearl.

"How do you know so much about food if you don't eat?" asked Lapis.

Pearl shifted her eyes from side to side before quietly answering with "Books. That's it."

"…After some trial and error…" Amethyst whispered to the blue gem.

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HE COULDN'T EAT THE BOX?!" shouted Pearl, remembering a particularly embarrassing moment from Steven's infancy.

"Alright, enough of that," said Garnet, quietly laughing at the memory herself, "The reason I brought you all here is to create a plan for Steven's training. We need to create a set schedule for what he needs to learn to be an effective fighter and when to learn it."

"Ooh, I'll print out the schedule once everything is finalized! And I can teach him all sorts of battle tactics!" exclaimed Pearl, raising her hand like an overly giddy student in school answering the teacher.

"There's a good start. Aside from teaching him how to wield our different weapons, he needs to learn how to hold his own in battle in case he is isolated from us or we are taken down."

"Whoa, why is this coming up now?" asked Lapis, not liking how serious the fusion was being, "Is something bad gonna happen?"

"Yeah, right!" scoffed Amethyst, "Garnet's just being careful. It's not like the Diamonds are coming to invade…" she started to laugh at her own joke, but Garnet sucked in a breath through teeth. She was hoping to save that for the end of the meeting, but she might as well tell them.

"About that, I also had a vision last night…"

* * *

Yellow Diamond was not having a good day. By all means, she should have been. Two new planets were deemed sufficient for gem colonization, several planets were being assimilated successfully, about thirty off-colors were found and shattered, and she was planning to have a new mural designed in her visage. Even with all that progress, though, the thorn that was Rose Quartz was still fresh in her mind. There was still no word from the ruby scouts they sent out to that solar system. She figured to be on the safe side and scour every planet around Earth in case the traitor made refuges or hideouts in case this kind of attention came her way. Despite the countless resources at her disposal, Yellow Diamond had no idea where that gem was and that bothered her to no end.

As she was overseeing the modifications one of the new planets would need, Yellow Pearl ran in completely out of breath.

"My Diamond! I have an urgent message for you!" she said breathily, though she never once broke her salute.

"Pearl, what is so urgent you had to barge in here and disturb my work?" she asked, not even looking down at her personal servant.

"It concerns Rose Quartz. I assumed your order about this being on a need-to-know basis still applies."

"Correct. Have you ascertained her exact location?"

"Yes, my Diamond. We received a transmission some time ago from Earth that told us Rose Quartz is still on the planet."

"You are telling me you received this transmission multiple cycles ago, correct?" Her pearl gave a nervous nod. "So why are you only bringing this to my attention _now_?" She turned her head and glared down at her servant.

"B-Because, my illustrious Diamond, we had to d-decipher it as it was sent by a very archaic, o-outdated method of communication. A wailing stone, to be s-sp-specific."

This actually caught the monarch's curiosity. She fully turned and faced her stuttering underling, silently motioning her to get up and stop groveling.

"You oversaw the translation of this message yourself, I take it?"

"Absolutely, my Diamond! I had a physical copy made that only you can activate!" She manifested a prism similar to a Diamond communicator that was colored a pale yellow. Yellow was pleased with the result and held the prism in her massive hand.

"Very well, Pearl. Inform me of any other suspicious transmissions. That will be all."

After another salute (And laughing about some bothersome agate who was in line to be shattered thanks to her,) the colossal gem opened a line to Blue Diamond. The somber monarch was on another planet, trying to straighten out some resource issues on a colony of hers.

"Yes, Yellow?" asked Blue, melancholy as ever.

"I have information concerning Rose Quartz. It seemed proper that you be involved."

The cerulean gem, for once, was able to focus on something besides her grief. With a small turn of the prism, a voice began playing out with surprising clarity given the archaic method of communication.

"Attention, any and all active Homeworld channels. I am Adamite Facet-2G3E Cut-8XW, member of Terraforming Brigade 7-Delta. I am currently located on the planet known as Earth and have information about the leader of the rebellion, Rose Quartz. My partner and I have managed to take an affiliate of Rose Quartz hostage and we are currently holding him in order to lure the rebel leader to us. The hostage claims that Rose Quartz will come to barter for his safety and surrender herself to us. Once we have her, we plan to give you custody of Rose Quartz so she may be punished for her crimes. All we ask for in exchange is being reinstated into the ranks of Homeworld so we may continue our service to the Diamonds as soon as possible. I cannot send exact coordinates due to the restrictions of the communication device, however I am confident the Diamonds can deduce the location of Earth. That will be all."

Both Diamonds stood silently for several minutes before Blue felt that same fury from the botched execution of Rose Quartz.

"So how many platoons should I send to Earth?"

"Relax," soothed Yellow, getting rather irritated by her counterpart's rage flaring up every time this issue came up, "We will most definitely send a strike force, but we must not be too wasteful. Rose Quartz and her miniscule rebellion do not necessitate an armada of troops."

For once, Blue Diamond did not fall back into depression and kept her head up. "But we must take immediate action. If Rose can leave Homeworld so quickly, we must take advantage of this opportunity."

"I agree on that," conceded Yellow, "I will send out the order to deploy several ships for Earth." Just as she was about to end the call, she noticed her fellow Diamond revert to her usual dejected self. If this fiasco had any upside, it was getting that sorry case out of her constant mourning.

"If it puts you at ease, I will allow the attacking force to be headed by a gem from your court."

"Thank you, Yellow. It is much appreciated." The gentler Diamond gave a rare, genuine smile as the call ended, already having an idea on who to send for this mission.

**Yeah, Homeworld does not give up this time around. What does Blue Diamond have in mind for this mission? Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	19. Preparations

**So how do our heroes handle the news that Homeworld essentially wants another war? Time to find out!**

The Crystal Gems, all things considered, were handling the news fairly well. Garnet, naturally, was not pleased with having to drop such a bombshell on everyone, but knew it had to come out sometime.

Peridot was cradling Pumpkin, who was close to panicking from the news, and petting him in order to calm his rampant barking and whimpering.

Pearl was clutching her head, trying to decide between making the first draft of a proper plan and merely keeping herself from having an episode in front of Steven.

Lapis was flying above them in circles, muttering to herself about how she could possibly get out of this one without something terrible happening to her or her friends.

Amethyst was, of all things, completely silent. She just plopped on the ground and was currently looking at the grass with her eyes as open as she could get them.

Steven was trying to keep his head up as his father crushed him in a bear hug, as if his hugs would somehow shield his son from the forces coming for him.

"Guys! Calm down!" shouted Steven, grabbing everyone's attention, "We've been through worse, right? And besides, it's not ALL of Homeworld coming, right Garnet?"

"From what I could tell, it was only a couple ships, but that could mean dozens of invaders. We do not want to underestimate them," the fusion replied.

"Take it from someone who was on board those vessels," added Peridot, her voice wavering, "Even a small number of ships can mean a severe issue. You saw what a bunch of rubies were capable of, and these could contain the more advanced soldiers with actual tacticians to guide and support gems like me to supply them."

Greg hugged his son tighter and Lapis began flying faster, the tone growing bleaker until Pearl straightened up and put her foot down.

"Peridot, I know you mean well and I appreciate your input, but take it from someone who HAD all of Homeworld after her, a few ships are nothing." The eloquent gem had a fire in her eyes that startled them all, a look that screamed defiance.

"I was told from the beginning that fighting for Earth would be an uphill battle. Rose gave me one chance to back down, but I followed her straight into what everyone thought was impossible. I was close to death hundreds of times, I was surrounded constantly by enemies, and I watched several of my closest comrades be shattered before my eyes. And yet here I am. They will assume we are not a threat because of our smaller numbers, and just like last time, their arrogance will be their downfall! We may not have the resources, but we have a drive they will never have! A drive to protect what's important to _us_, not some overbearing dictator! They thought I was only a servant, a disposable toy! They didn't think that as I cut down their 'soldiers' by the dozen! If a scrawny, singular plaything like me can bring dread to the Diamonds themselves, then you all can be the monsters that haunt them for eternity!"

She drew her spear and pointed it to the heavens as the others stared in awe at the raw confidence Pearl exuded.

"This planet is a testament to their failure! The Diamonds, as much as they think otherwise, are _not _perfect. They have failed once, and I say they will fail again! If they want Steven, they will only get him after they've reduced me to dust! I will personally topple Yellow and Blue Diamond myself if it means keeping Steven and the rest of you safe! I will never let them have their way with me, my family, or this planet! Now, who here still thinks a few ships is a threat?!"

The others were speechless. Greg had finally let go of his son and actually looked relaxed. He believed every word she said. Steven had his signature stars in his eyes, moved to his core by her words. The actual gems were amazed at her speech, even Garnet was shocked by her confidence.

"Well," the fusion remarked, "Glad to see that lightened everyone up."

Hearing that, Pearl put away her spear and her cheeks turned blue. She simply clasped her hands behind her back and laughed, embarrassed at her own dramatics, and stood beside Garnet. The rest of their meeting was them going over a proper training regimen for Steven and his new abilities. Even still, they all knew the upcoming conflict would not be an easy one. Once they dispersed, Amethyst remained seated on the grass, not even taking the opportunity to mock Pearl for her sudden shyness after her earlier demonstration. While she no longer gazed at the ground like she was trying to burrow into it with her eyeballs, a sense of dread still clung to her.

"Amethyst, what's up?" asked Steven, noticing the violet gem lost in thought, "Are you alright?"

The purple rabble-rouser finally lifted her eyes, noticing everyone else was gone. "Uh… Yeah, I'm totally fine. You know I space out when Pearl's being all orderly and junk." She gave him a smug grin, but as he started to walk away it quickly faded. She actually listened to everything Pearl said for once. And for once she wanted to take what she said about not being intimidated to heart.

* * *

For the next week, Steven Universe's life became a constant stream of training and education. He almost wondered if this was somewhat like Connie's schooling, minus the sword fighting and target practice, but was quickly snapped out of it by whatever task he was doing. Each one of the gems found a way to train him.

Amethyst was showing the art of unpredictability and became one constant reminder of how the element of surprise was your best friend in battle. One minute she would just be talking with Steven, a perfectly normal conversation with the two laughing and chumming it up, then she would rush him or start running after him with the intent to give him a wedgie. This worked wonders for his speed and stamina. Outside of that, she enlightened him in the finer points of whipping bad guys in the butt until he was decently competent with the weapon.

Pearl became his guide for battle tactics and general sparring. The slender gem spent hours brushing up his techniques and improving his posture. In only a few days, his reflexes were on another level to the point where, in the middle of a sparring session with him only being able to use a spear, he dodged one of Amethyst's many, _many_, sneak attacks while also blocking and returning Pearl's strikes. She was so impressed with his progress that she rewarded him with a cupcake and being able to stay up late to watch his favorite show on his phone. When she was not testing his combat, she was sharing anecdotes to her time in the war and running through various scenarios to see how he would react in the heat of the moment. Since he tried to be noble and selfless whenever possible, Pearl praised his courage, but warned that there would be times he would have to put himself first.

Garnet took it upon herself to be Steven's personal trainer, dedicating herself to toughening him up. Day in and day out, the fusion focused on raising his strength and endurance through good-old fashioned physical exercise. While Steven was already well beyond the physical limits of a typical human thanks to being half-gem, Garnet wanted to further improve his abilities. Whether he was running back and forth from Beach City on runs, completing obstacle courses she set up out of random junk, typical strength-building through push-ups and weights, to having to break cinderblocks or mounds of ice she formed. This was just as much for her benefit as Steven's since she wanted to get more adept with her new abilities. Occasionally she would have Steven defend or outrun fire attacks, but that almost resulted in Pearl going ballistic until she remembered the young boy's healing powers. Even still, the white gem carried a vial of water from Rose's fountain just in case he was injured during her more strenuous activities. Of course, she also further educated him in using her gauntlets in between the training sessions.

Peridot and Lapis Lazuli took a unique role compared to the other gems as they became students like Steven at some points, but instructed him at other times. Both of them were given a crash course in combat, since neither gem was developed with fighting in more nor did they have the plentiful experience as the main trio. Amethyst launched several sneak attacks on the two, forcing them to utilize their powers in unique ways. Pearl brushed them up on battle tactics and formal fighting techniques. Although she admits her teaching methods were never designed for their abilities, the duo took anything they could get. Garnet got them into some physical training as well, but more focused to improving their abilities instead of their physiques. Peridot was trained not only to make her ferrokinesis stronger, but more intricate so as to be more versatile than just swinging metal around. Lapis, since she already had brute force covered, was told how to be more versatile with her hydrokinesis. Instead of always making large, cumbersome constructs, Garnet insisted her to use her powers in a more restrained, yet accessible manner since she was quickly told she may not always have access to large bodies of waters. When they were not being taught, they were using their abilities to assist in Steven's training. The boy had quickly grown accustomed to dodging flying soup cans, guarding against water whips, and having his cardio exercise interrupted by a blue dive-bomber trying to swoop him up and tickle him into submission.

Even if he never intended to fight, Greg did everything in his power to help his son and the other gems. When he was not checking up on the reconstruction of the beach house, he cheered Steven on and gave him constant encouragement. He always provided a shoulder for him to rest on and chatted with him during the breaks in his training. He was impressed to see his son take all of this in stride, rarely showing any sign of fear. Greg began to truly envy his optimism as all he could think about was him ending up severely hurt at best or being dragged back to Homeworld at worst. He also could not shake the feeling that he could be more useful in such a crisis, but what was a portly human in his forties with no real fighting skills supposed to do?

* * *

After six days straight the Crystal Gems still focused solely on training Steven. While there was still some free time and an all-around positive attitude, there was always a level of tension as the threat of Homeworld's arrival remained. The only other concern was Garnet disappearing for chunks of the day, but since she still stuck to the training schedule it was a minor matter.

At the moment, Steven was testing his reflexes and stamina against Peridot and Lapis. The goal was only to evade and block their attacks with Pearl and Amethyst watching over them as the two-on-one exercise continued. Lapis was keeping a small puddle of water by her side and making use of her new skills, creating tripwires and small bursts to keep Steven on his toes. Peridot had gathered several metal bits and bobs from Amethyst's room and kept flinging everything from computer parts to spoons at the trainee. They duo had been trying to hit Steven for ten minutes now, and yet he continued to dodge everything or summon his shield for defense.

Clearly seeing he was used to individual tactics from the pair, they silently agreed to try hitting him together. Lapis made a strand of water go for Steven's feet, causing the boy to leap into the air. As he was flying, she guided the liquid rope to follow him and tie him up while Peridot sent a barrage of blunt scrap at his torso. Instead of panicking, he summoned his bubble in midair and watched all the metal bits bounce off. He descended in total safety, slowly falling until he touched the ground and disable his shield. Much to his own shock, though, Lapis took advantage of the situation for an aerial attack. The aquatic aeronaut flew overhead and literally rained down liquid spheres on his head. Steven only barely saw them coming and, in a moment of panic, summoned his spear and tried to deflect them all with by rapidly spinning the weapon in order to disperse them. While Pearl was impressed by his improvisation, the boy was unused to such a technique and he was quickly thrown off balance. This gave Peridot the perfect opportunity to literally run into Steven to tag him with her scrawny fists. The two literally toppled over each other ending with Steven squashing the tiny green mechanic under his bulk, forcing her tap out in order to call an end to the exercise.

"And that is the last time I attempt hand-to-hand combat," moaned Peridot as she stood up dizzily. Lapis was already trying not to laugh from watching their tumbling act, but seeing her barn-mate talking and stumbling like a drunk pushed her over the edge and into a fit of hysterical laughter, kicking her bare feet as she laid guffawing on the dirt.

"Well Steven that was a very interesting attempt at defending yourself, but why not simply summon your bubble again?" asked Pearl as she looked him over for any injuries.

"I just sort of panicked and thought I wouldn't have time. Plus, I saw that in a _Lonely Blade_ movie and wanted to try it out…" He chuckled, realizing that was not the best course of action. Aside from a few scrapes, though, there was no harm in it this time and Pearl still gave him a pat on the back for the ingenuity.

Just as the group was picking themselves up and readying for a different activity, Garnet and Greg beamed in from the warp pad with smiles on their faces.

"Hey everybody, the new house is officially done!" yelled Greg, relishing in having positive news for the first time in weeks, "Come and see it!"

"I think we could all use some time to unwind," added Garnet, "This is officially a day off so we can celebrate." She was also pleased to have something to take the weight off of the impending Homeworld arrival, also confident that the enemy was still a week away minimum. Steven eagerly ran ahead of the other gems, ready to have his old home back, and was literally jumping with excitement once the gems were assembled and whisked away back to the temple.

It was apparent as soon as they arrived as to why Greg was so eager to show off the house, which everyone else sans Garnet (who had been witnessing the renovations since she was regularly visiting the temple for her own project), believed it was going to be rebuilt exactly like it was before the flood and fire. One look at the house quickly proved them wrong as all of them gaped at seeing Greg had seriously upgraded their abode.

The immediate change they noticed was that there was an actual second level with a wooden spiral staircase leading up to it in the middle of the room, but their attention was quickly drawn to the main floor itself. While the ground and walls were still wood, they were all painted white and the layout was changed greatly. Steven's former bedroom was gone, much to their surprise, and instead was a circular brick fire pit surrounded by comfy armchairs and a new white couch, large enough to easily sit four. Several bookshelves lined the right wall with dozens of books, albums, and movies that they had before and several they did not recognize. On the other side of the room was brand new kitchen, the counters and new island topped with a gorgeous white marble that shone next to the black-painted cupboards. The left wall was dominated with brand new appliances, stainless steel and still sparkling. The refrigerator, hood, toaster, even the blender all looked like they arrived today. The only remnants of their old kitchen was the microwave that survived all the carnage. There was also a tile backsplash above the sink, a stylish vibrant pattern of blue and green squares that clearly took inspiration from two of their residents.

"What do you think guys? I've been thinking we could do with a few upgrades for a while now," boasted Greg, brimming with confidence at their new abode. Steven was already starry-eyed, oohing and aahing anything he caught glimpse of. He quickly ran to check out the new bathroom and was not disappointed when he opened the door. The new walls were a vibrant purple which complimented the lavender tiles in the shower. Any and all damage from Lapis' nightmare was gone as all new fixtures gleamed under the just-installed lights.

"It's amazing!" shouted Steven, as he ran to hug his father. Greg, however, had one more surprise concerning the staircase from earlier.

"Well, I'm surprised to hear you say that since you haven't seen your new room yet…" the father coyly mentioned, causing his son to gasp and run right up the stairs from before. The gems, also puzzled at how his former sleeping area was now the living quarters, followed him to the new second floor and were surprised to see TWO bedrooms set up.

The staircase led to the middle of the new floor with the left side clearly being for Steven. All of his possessions were arranged on one side with the television and gaming consoles already set up his posters adorning the red wall. On the right, however, was another bed with a simple white bedspread. There were few materials possessions other than an old record player and a box of vinyl records at the foot of the bed and a new coffee maker to be plugged in downstairs later. The right wall was a lighter pink color with the other two changing colors halfway as if one color faded into the other.

"Greg, is this for when you visit?" asked Pearl.

"No, this is where I'll be living from now on. I won't be in your hair all the time since I'll still be overseeing the car wash, but now I can hire employees to run it day to day. I want to really be involved in all the stuff going on and be by his side with the chaos going around. I know I'm not cut out to be on the front lines, but I want to stand by you all any way I can."

The gems, while nervous at the thought of Greg boarding with them full time, were impressed by his dedication. Their doubts were further helped when Steven cheered and hugged his father, ecstatic at the thought of his family being all together for the first time in his life. With the tour of new house done, though, Garnet moved back downstairs and called for everyone to gather at the temple door.

"Alright, as you all know, I've been working on something here myself," said the fusion after everyone assembled, "Rather than explain the renovations to you, I would like Peridot to demonstrate."

The compact gem was rather startled by this, but Garnet merely asked here to come forward and place her hand on the temple door. As soon as it made contact with the smooth entryway, the star on the top began to shift and change. The five-point star shifted to six as a new point appeared opposite of Rose Quartz's gem with a green triangular stone in the center. The observing gems were shocked, but none more so than Peridot herself.

"I think it's only fair that since you no longer have the barn that you have a proper room now that you're staying here," spoke Garnet, shaking Peridot out of her stupor. The squat scientist was honored and looked behind her to see the entire assembly smiling at her, all agreeing she had long since earned such a reward. Peridot gave her sincere thanks to Garnet and entered her new room, eager to see what her new abode would contain. After the door vanished into sharp green pixels from the floor up, Peridot's room surpassed all of her expectations.

The entire room was lit sporadically by striking green lightning, constantly moving along the darker green ceiling and floor. Peridot's eyes, however, were on the contents of the room. Inside was every piece of technology she had access to on Homeworld along with dozens more she did not recognize. There was also a smattering of Earth gadgets from common hand tools to high-end lab equipment only found in classified research facilities. Once her mind took everything in, she leaped for joy and hollered at the top of her lungs in ecstasy. The gems merely let the door close on its own, knowing full well she would spend hours tinkering.

"Wow, Garnet, that was really nice of you," complimented Lapis, "I can tell she's really missed building stuff. Thanks." As she began to walk away, however, the fusion spoke up.

"We're not done here yet, Lapis. There's still your room." That got the blue gem to do a double take.

"Huh?! B-But, I'm not… Really, that's-"

"What, you thought we were gonna make you sleep in the bathtub all the time?" jested Amethyst.

"Lapis, you have proven to be an immense asset in these past few weeks. You are more than worthy of having your own place here," complimented Pearl.

The aquatic flyer had no words. As she brought back her experiences from the recent past to mind, she realized that they were right. She may have been scared at points and caused a mess at others, but she fought over and over again to save the planet and people she cares about. That brought an enormous smile to her face and quickly ran forward to place her hand on the door. A seventh point emerged with her tear-shaped gem right next to Peridot's. Once complete, the door melted away into a blue liquid from the top down to reveal her new home.

Much like Rose's room, the room was a vast expanse that disregarded physics as there seemed to be no end to the space. The sky above her was a mixture of all the elements she loved to see when flying. It was as if day and night were in constant competition with each other as there were multiple small suns surrounding streaks of blue sky among strips of stars and blackness made by several moons. Clouds and comets dotted the skyline, but her main focus was on the ground. The entrance to the room had a long strip of sand to resemble a beach, but the rest of the ground was water. A perfectly placid, sparkling blue ocean that went on for miles and miles.

"I take it you like what I've done with the place," mused Garnet as she and the other gems watched Lapis stare at her new habitat for some time. When the blue gem turned to face them, her watery eyes said more than enough and hugged all of them. For the first time since she dropped the barn on those ruby ships, Lapis Lazuli felt like she was one of the Crystal Gems.

**And now we have one other thing accomplished: Peridot and Lapis are permanent parts of the Crystal Gems complete with their own rooms! But their not the only ones...**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	20. Room for One More

**So now with everyone settled, you'd think I'd give them time to get settled before throwing another new character into the mix, right? WRONG! **

With everyone finally settled in the Universe household once more, training resumed with all seven of Crystal Gems focused on preparing for Homeworld's arrival. While the date may be unknown, all of them swore to be as ready as could be. This went doubly so for Steven as he put all of his energy improving his skills.

The lessons continued with Amethyst keeping him alert around the clock, Pearl brushing up his technique and tactics and Garnet keeping up the exercise routine. Peridot and Lapis, when not glued to their new rooms, practiced as well. Peridot was already making plans for new devices she could create to combat the enemy and support his training, although the entire group shuddered in fear every time she asked what exactly "nuclear" meant. Lapis was making great strides with her hydrokinesis now that she had her own training ground with no potential for collateral damage. She was even working with Pearl on how to properly integrate her abilities into a fighting team, much to the veteran gem's delight. Having yet another opportunity to teach was her only stress relief these days outside of cleaning.

As for Greg, he followed through on his promise to move in which worried the gems at first. While Steven was happy to see his father on a daily basis now, he and the others were skeptical how he would contribute to their efforts. As it turns out, he actually proved a benefit as he constantly kept the place together. He created a formal training schedule (much to Pearl's disappointment), kept the house stocked with nutritious food and drinks for Steven, and provided some much-needed levity in the face of such paralyzing adversity. Everyone had come to rely on him for some positivity, but something caught Steven's eye during one of his breaks. As he sat in one of the new chairs with his phone, he noticed his father coming out of Peridot's room.

"S-Steven?!" his father gasped, surprised at him being idle, "How you doing, sport?" His eyes were flitting to and fro, blatantly giving away his fear.

"I'm fine, Dad. What were you doing with Peridot?" he asked, simply curious. He would never suspect his father of having ill intentions, but Greg's nervousness was worrisome to him.

"Oh, well, you know, I never really got to know her, right? I mean, aside from that time she threw me off the barn roof and that other time she trashed the car wash we've barely spoken to each other and yet she's been living here for months now! Speaking of which, I need to go and check up on inventory at the shop, I hear we need more squeegees, I'll be right back. Love you!" He spoke like the wind and practically ran out the door, causing Steven to raise an eyebrow in confusion. Not long after he left, Peridot appeared from the temple scanning the room.

"Steven, where did your parental unit run off to?" asked the green researcher.

"He just took off. Seemed really nervous. What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing major. He just made a personal request, but he should realize that progress will be stifled if he scampers off like this," she grumbled, ignoring Steven's surprised look. "Well, since I'm out here, have you seen Pearl? I was looking to ask her about the armaments left over from the previous encounter with Homeworld."

He quickly pointed her outside where the white veteran gem was stretching for her upcoming sparring session with Steven. Once the two got talking, however, they all decided it would be for the best to hold a meeting and take stock of all potential resources. Soon after, Garnet brought along one of the laser light cannons used during the original rebellion as all of the Crystal Gems gathered for their meeting on the patio. Peridot, intrigued by the weapon, circled around the pink device while muttering to herself. She soon came to a rather bleak conclusion.

"This is the most archaic gem weaponry I have ever seen. While this may have been the peak of technology at the time of its conception, using this against a modern Homeworld ship would accomplish nothing except amuse the invaders."

Pearl grumbled at that, trying to ignore the fact that the weapon had saved them several times in the past, and focused on the topic at hand.

"Well, this is the best we have aside from more conventional handheld weapons. Is there anything you could do to improve on this and make it viable?"

"While I could theoretically repurpose this, I will admit first and foremost direct weaponry is not my forte. I will, however, see what I can do with what equipment I now possess." While it may not have been much, it was some reassurance and let the gems get back to their routine. The only one who stayed put was Steven who ran through the situation in his mind. He knew Peridot was no weapon smith, but who could fit that bill?

* * *

After a long day of training, Steven's body was ready for bed. He climbed into his yellow pajamas and felt ready to doze off. His mind, however, was still buzzing from their meeting earlier. All throughout the day he had the perfect candidate for someone who could make weapons, but the last time they met ended rather poorly. He had a hunch that if he brought it up to the others, they would just reject it for his safety and promise to think of something else.

Under normal circumstances, he would have happily listened and let them find an alternative. The problem was they were already short on time with all the training they were giving him and they still had no idea when Homeworld would show up. Steven figured that since these were desperate times, he had to jump the gun.

Once he was certain his father was asleep and none of the Crystal Gems were around, he climbed down the stairs and opened the way to the Burning Room. He hardly had to look to find the pink bubble he wanted and silently floated up to it. As he stared at the polychromatic gemstone inside, his doubts began to appear. For all he knew, she could just run away, refuse to help or even attack him on sight, all out of some millennia-old grudge. Deciding to keep them somewhere familiar, Steven carried the bubble outside onto the beach, right in front of the reconstructed porch. He made sure the main body of the temple was in full view, hoping that giving her something recognizable might keep her calm. After taking a breath to steady his nerves, he released the bubble and in only seconds, a bulky purple gem formed wearing a black apron although it seemed to have much more pink this time around. Her rainbow dreadlocks stood out as clear as day and once fully reformed, she looked down on him with a quiet glare.

"What do you want?" was all Bismuth asked, clearly angered at seeing Steven again.

"Hi…" he muttered, rubbing his head in discomfort, "Listen, I know we didn't get off on the right foot last time-"

"Really? I hadn't noticed," she droned, her voice laced with sarcasm, "Did you just want to give me an update of the last century so I know how much I've missed?"

"Actually, it's only been a few months. And the reason I let you out is because Homeworld is coming back. Garnet saw they were sending a lot of gems here."

That got the hulking blacksmith out of her funk. She may have been rusty, but her loyalty was still as fresh as ever.

"Did Garnet give you any specifics? Do we have a proper battle plan?"

"Not really. All we know is that it's a few ships and we need you to help us. I know you don't like me or my mom right now, but this planet needs you."

Bismuth briefly went to war with herself as she contemplated this information. On the one hand, she looked up at the temple and felt a burning desire to take up arms again. There was still a drive to keep the Earth safe and stick it to those upper-crusts that would never die until she was in shards. But as soon as she looked down at Steven, a wave of uneasiness made her hesitate. She had a hunch this would not end well. Even with that rattling her mind, though, she crossed her arms and answered with a gruff "Okay."

"Yay! Now let's get you introduced to our new members!" As he began to lead her back into the house, a worrying thought entered his mind.

"Oh, before we start this can you just promise me one thing?"

"What?" If this was going where she thought, it would be a long day.

"You have to promise me that you won't shatter anyone, alright?" Steven silently hoped she had learned to forgive and forget in her absence, but her creased brow quickly proved otherwise.

"Really? Not even five minutes in and we're going down that road again?! Kid, I don't know how much you know about war, but sometimes you don't have a choice!"

"Just because you're fighting, even if it's right, doesn't make it okay to _kill _gems, Bismuth!" That quickly got the large gem to lose any patience she had left.

"Shut your mouth, you stupid pebble!" she screamed, looming over him with a mad gleam in her eyes, "You have no idea what combat is like! Do you know what to do when you've got five jaspers breathing down your neck while your best friend's screaming for help?! You can't do squat if you're in pieces and sometimes you have to get violent!"

"I know that, and I get this might be difficult for you-" he placated before being grabbed by her massive fists and pulled right into her snaring face.

"'_Might be difficult_''?! You don't know the first thing about war, you clod! I spent centuries putting my life on the line and you think YOU, some runt, can order me around?! Or do you think you're in charge because of that gem you got?!"

"No! Bismuth, I just don't want anyone getting seriously hurt!" He was panicking now, desperate to stop their screaming match from escalating, but it seemed he had ticked her off again.

"You've got the enemy literally coming down on your head, and _that's_ what's you're scared of! This planet is going to be _dust_ if we fail, don't you get that?! I knew it, you are just as blind as she was…All you care about is right now when you can end the problem NOW!"

"Don't talk like that! I won't let you shatter anyone if I have to!"

Bismuth had to laugh at that. "Oh REALLY?! You think you're hot stuff now?! I'll tell you what, I'll make some new weapons for the fight, all right. The first thing I'll make is a new Breaking Point. In fact, I'll have at least a dozen of them ready by the time the Diamonds get here and there won't be a thing you can do to stop me! What do you think about that, Rose?!"

Steven was, by all means, amazingly lenient given all he has been through. He had faced incredible odds and almost always let hate and strife roll off his back. It was one of the qualities that had proven an asset in his training. No matter how many times he was knocked down or messed up, he got back up and swore to do better next time. Now, though, all that patience was gone and he was angry, made worse by her choice of name.

"My. Name. Is. STEVEN!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. His rage blinded him and in his fury he wrenched one of his arms loose and decked Bismuth in the face.

Normally he would just summon a bubble of try to talk his way out of it, but that was not an option with the ringing in his ears. As he watched the purple gem go skidding across the sand, actually sent twenty feet from his punch, his anger irritation quickly turned to regret.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that, I'm sorry!" He pleaded for forgiveness, but when Bismuth got up her eyes were boring holes into him.

"OH YOU'RE GONNA BE SORRY ALRIGHT!" She shapeshifted her hands into a pair of axe heads and charged at him like a bull, practically snorting steam out of her nose.

Now he had done it, a fight had started and there was no negotiating his way out of it. With no other choice, Steven leapt into the air in a frenzy but Bismuth just soared after him. Surprised by her buoyancy given her bulk, he summoned his shield and blocked every swing she threw at him once they were face-to-face in the sky.

The feverish gem slashed at him several times, but Steven summoned his shield and kept his guard up under her assault. That proved to be his undoing, however, as Bismuth decided to tackle him and push him down to the ground. Shocked by her charge, he did not slow his fall and was sent plummeting several feet into the sand. He crawled out in a daze and tried to catch his bearings as Bismuth barreled towards him again, now wielding dual hammers for hands.

"You're gonna have to do better than that!" Bismuth taunted, but her cockiness quickly changed as Steven rose back up, and launched straight into the bulky blacksmith. As the two tumbled on the sand, Steven eventually got the upper hand in their tussle and, quite literally, threw his opponent for a loop as he tossed her several dozen feet in the air. Rather than backing down, however, Steven pursued her into the sky with another leap, much to the renegade's shock.

"Well, you've gotten better, but-" whatever sassy retort she could make was cut off as Steven grabbed Bismuth's leg and forced both of them back down to earth at breakneck speed. The crash kicked up a cloud of sand forty feet high and sent shockwaves down the coast line.

As the debris cleared Bismuth, groaning from the impact, was lying in a crater of sand with Steven standing looking her in the eyes. Despite still wearing his yellow pajamas, he managed to appear threatening as his stature and face made it clear he was in no mood for her backtalk.

"Stop this, Bismuth," he asked, stern yet tender, "I don't want to seriously hurt you. And I know Mom didn't either."

Rather than backing down, that caused Bismuth's ferocity to explode again. "How would _you_ know what Rose wanted?! You weren't there! And if you're not her, what gives you the right to order me around?!"

"Because we want the same thing. We want the Diamonds to go away and leave the Earth in peace. I don't want to order you around, but I want to end this with as little shattering as possible."

"Hah! You think it's that easy? You think this is all some game?! You don't know the first thing about what those Diamonds will stoop to, how far they'll drag you down to get what they want. Face it, Steven, that's how war is. Sometimes it's you or them and you need to pick one."

"I know that!" shouted Steven, his own patience gone again thanks to Bismuth's prattling. He grabbed the broad gem by the shoulder and forced her to look him in the eye.

"I watched Yellow Diamond tell Peridot to let the Earth blow up because she hates it. I saw Blue Diamond kidnap my dad for some freaky human zoo. A few months ago I was on trial in front of both of them because I wanted to keep the Earth safe! It was the dumbest decision I ever made and frankly I hate myself for it! But I didn't have a choice…It was that or all my friends get taken to Homeworld. I almost threw my life away, Bismuth. I should be dead. I don't want to see anyone, no matter what side they are on, die. It scares me and I'll bet it scares you too. If that happens, it should be as a last resort. I hate fighting, but I know it's the only way sometimes. I don't want to fight you, Bismuth, but I'll keep doing it until you come around. Then we can work together to end this war."

For several minutes the two stared at each other in silence on the sand, the cold ocean air barely phasing them as they locked eyes. As they stared at each other Greg and the Crystal Gems, save for a preoccupied Lapis Lazuli, emerged from the beach house. The group was alerted to the situation thanks to Greg being rudely awakened from his sleep by the mighty crash from the fight between the two.

"Okay then," remarked Garnet, admittedly having not seen this outcome coming, "I think we all need to calm down and discuss some issues."

Both parties could not agree more and moved to the recently rebuilt porch except for Greg who went back to bed now that the fireworks settled down. Bismuth stood before two of her old comrades and several new faces as she retold the events. She was asked several questions by the Crystal Gems and even a few from Steven. After she made her case, Steven spoke his side which matched up with Bismuth's tale and even had him vouching for them all to work together much to the rainbow-haired blacksmith's shock.

After both stories were told, Garnet looked at her old ally with a neutral gaze. After several agonizing minutes, she spoke.

"Bismuth, I appreciate your honesty here. I also know you were always one who went with your gut instinct and even after all this, I trust you."

That made the purple blacksmith smile, but it quickly faded as the fusion took on a very serious tone.

"However, that is the second time you attacked Steven. And that's not bringing up the events that led to Rose bubbling you in the first place. This all makes me rather hesitant to bring you on permanently."

"Please, you know me Garnet!" Bismuth pleaded, "I give my all for whatever I set my mind to. If an ally needs backup, I'm there in an instant. And yes, I may have gone too far with the…measures I was willing to take to beat Homeworld. But I can change! That's what the Crystal Gems are, a bunch of nobodies who wanted a different lot in life. I did it back then and I can do it now!"

"Bismuth, I _want _to believe you," assured Pearl, "I trusted you with my life countless times. But after hearing everything you've done, I frankly don't blame Rose for putting you away. You were getting too mutinous, murderous even. I fully understand wanting to end the battle, but your plan was simply too extreme."

That was not what the hulking gem wanted to hear, and began shrinking back in anxiety. "Okay, I get it. No more Breaking Point. That's a done deal. Just let me help you somehow. I'll make weapons, I'll reinforce the base, heck I'll even stay by the kid's side if he's ever in trouble. Just please, don't leave me out of everything again!"

Amethyst and Peridot, lacking the amicable past with the gem, looked skeptical. Pearl looked as if she was resigned to her ally being sent back into imprisonment for her own good. Garnet was a straight-faced as ever, but Steven seemed genuinely moved.

"I believe you," he uttered, much to the questioned gem's shock.

"Y-You do?"

"Of course. We all get carried away sometimes, and you were doing what you did to help your family and the Earth. I may not like how you did it, but I know you care about this planet and everyone on it. If you're willing to change then I'll give you a chance."

Bismuth was tempted to drop her jaw in shock, but somehow kept it closed. Her awe grew as Steven stood from his seat and held out a hand for her in a sign of comradery. All she could do was gawk at it.

"I don't get it," she admitted, sounding more lost than in her entire life, "When you first let me out I wanted to shatter you. Now you want to be my ally. Why?"

"Because deep down I know we want the same thing and I know you can get better. I want to find the best in you Bismuth."

The bulky gem actually felt a tear well up in her eye as she took his hand and the two shook with smiles on their faces. The table of Crystal Gems looked equally surprised, but all grinned at the sight in front of them.

"Well, if Steven's willing to extend a hand in solidarity then I see little reason to question him. After all, I was on the opposite side of this conflict less than a year ago," remarked Peridot as she strode over to the larger gem, secretly planning for all the projects she could help create.

"Same here, 'cept I just joined up because why not. As long as you don't burn the place down, I'm game," joked Amethyst, leaning back into her beach chair now that the tension was dying down.

"I suppose the only issue now will be finding a place for you around here," added Pearl, quietly ecstatic to have one of her last remaining friends from the old days back in action.

Garnet merely stood and shook Bismuth's meaty hand herself, cementing her approval of this new arrangement. As the gang was about to head inside to get their newest addition settled they saw Lapis Lazuli staring at Bismuth. In all the excitement, none of them noticed how she did not emerge from the temple with the others due to her sleeping. It was unclear how much of the commotion she saw, but her eyes never left the dreadlocked gem.

"Oh, hey there," greeted Bismuth, "You must be another new member. Hope we can-" was all she managed to say before a massive tendril of water wrapped around her torso. In only a second she was sent flying several miles into the ocean, screaming her head off all the while.

**Annnnnnnd...That's that! Next time we confront this whole debacle and let the new team get closer with a good old-fashioned mission! See you then!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	21. Bonding

**And now the resolution for cliffhanger #...50? I lost count. **

Even for a group as eclectic and eccentric as the Crystal Gems, watching someone get flung over the horizon by a massive liquid tentacle after offering a handshake was just surreal. All six of them just looked out to the ocean, unable to see or hear Bismuth anymore. Eventually Amethyst broke the silence by asking the question on all of their minds.

"Okay, that was awesome and all, but WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!"

As the group pondered such a profound question, Pearl eventually recalled a moment from her and Lapis' trip to the former Crystal Gem armory which made her groan and slap her own gem in consternation.

"Lapis, don't tell me…You think Bismuth is the one who-"

"I know she did it. She's the reason I was put in that mirror," spoke the aquatic gem with enough malice and firmness that the others almost took it at face value.

Even still, Pearl insisted she bring Bismuth back to at least hear the other side of the story in order to verify her claim. Although she scoffed at the thought of her being innocent, Lapis complied as she flew into the night to retrieve the unwilling purple projectile. As she was unceremoniously flung back onto the beach by the same water formation, amazing Peridot with her lung capacity after another long bout of screaming, Lapis returned with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face.

"Okay, what the heck was that for?!" shouted Bismuth, her temper flaring up once more as this was becoming the second worst day of her life. As she got into Lapis' face, the smaller gem did not flinch and merely stared back with a disturbing lack of emotion.

"Bismuth, it appears that Lapis is under the impression that you caused her some serious pain," spoke Pearl, hoping to stop another water-whipping, "And she still has a grudge."

"You could say that…" grumbled the gem in question.

"What do you mean, there aren't that many Lapis Lazulis on Homeworld. And besides that, they aren't soldiers," rebutted Bismuth, but that answer clearly did not sit well with Lapis.

"I had a habit of wandering off. I was in the middle of a field, just looking around, when a battle came up around me. Remember that?"

Bismuth looked puzzled by her statement and suddenly had a recollection.

"Oh wait! There was this one time I found some stupid Lapis Lazuli wandering around and I…" she trailed off as she saw Lapis give her a glare that could melt glaciers. The others, even Steven, all looked at her with some mixture of shock, disappointment and disgust. The sole exception was Pearl who was too busy holding her face in her hands in shame.

"You attacked Lapis when she was doing nothing?! What's the matter with you?!" shouted Amethyst.

"It was the heat of the moment. She had a Diamond insignia on her. I panicked! My bad, alright?"

"Rose specifically ordered us to never attack bystanders, Bismuth. As such a close affiliate of hers, you of all gems should know that," stated Pearl.

"Look, I'm sorry! She's still whole, right? What's the worst that could have happened?" That was the last sentence Bismuth could utter before several liquid chains emerged from out of the ocean. They wrapped around her hands, feet and neck with a disturbing amount of pressure considering they were purely made of water. The larger blacksmith already felt her extremities ache and her neck chafe. That discomfort paled, however, when an incensed Lapis silently walked up to her. The chains forced Bismuth to meet her eye to eye and she suddenly had flashbacks to several very ugly battles from days gone by. Suddenly taking on an angry hoard of Homeworld gems singlehandedly sounded downright delightful.

"You really want to know how bad it got, Bismuth? Okay then, I'll tell you. Imagine being stuck in a pane of glass for 6,500 years. In all that time you are fully aware of what is happening and are screaming to be let out. For around half of that time, give or take a century, you are constantly drilled by Homeworld sentries for information you don't have. You plead innocent, you beg to be released, but they insist you're lying and keep pressing you. Then they throw you away like garbage, nearly breaking your gem in the process, and leave you for dead. Then, after spending another couple thousand years along in some desert, a gem finds you and puts you into storage up until about a year ago. All I felt was cold, beaten, alone and violated. Oh, and some unbearable pain once the broken gem came in. I had no reason to go on, no reason to _live _anymore. And now I learn all that misery was caused by some reckless, hotheaded, moronic _psychopath_ who punches first and asks questions later when she should have known Lapis Lazulis are strictly used for cleanup only when the colonization process is complete. That's the kind of stuff they teach you minutes after being formed. Does that answer your question? My life has been mostly _hell _thanks to you. I have every reason to despise you, and trust me, I do. The only reason I'm explaining this to you instead of flinging you into the sun so you can experience _some_ of the excruciating torture you put me through is because Steven wants to give you a chance. Count yourself lucky that he wants to save you. And if you hurt him again I will make you suffer so much even the _Diamonds themselves _will feel sorry for you." Her voice never wavered. Every syllable was packed with enough fire to burn a city to ashes.

Once her speech was done, the chains receded in an instant. Everyone on the beach was too stunned to move an inch. Bismuth was actually close to hyperventilating, brought closer to breaking than any of the hundreds of battles she fought in.

"Oh, and I might have amnesia thanks to you, so there's that," added a much calmer Lapis, but a grimace was still there. Once her back was turned, however, she gave a smile to the still stunned group and gave Steven a hug before heading back to her room for more sleep. Unsure of how to proceed after that episode, the rest simply headed inside. Bismuth eventually decided to head in herself once everyone was back to their rooms and make swords in the old Crystal Gem forge until the sun came up. Along with calming her nerves, she still had a mission and intended on making sure Homeworld was going down.

* * *

After another incident that disturbed his sleep, Steven woke up long after he was supposed to according to his training schedule. Given the recent change to their team, however, everyone was in an unsaid agreement to let today be an off one. After getting dressed, he bound down the stairs to where his dad was calmly preparing a late breakfast.

"Morning, kiddo! Ready for another fun day?" he jovially asked while cooking up some turkey bacon.

"Heh, yeah," he shyly remarked, "What happened to Bismuth?"

"I'm over here," answered the blacksmith. Her and Pearl were sitting in two of the chairs around the new fire pit. The latter waved Steven over to join them and was soon brought his breakfast by Greg before the balding dad ran out to attend to some business.

"So what have you guys been doing?" asked Steven.

"Well Bismuth came by while you were asleep and wanted to be brought up to speed on everything that has happened since her…suspension began," Pearl replied awkwardly, not wanting to offend her comrade, "Naturally, it has been quite the long chat."

"You can say that again," grumbled Bismuth, "I still can't believe about the corruption thing! How could those Diamonds do something like that?!"

"If it's any consolation, Steven managed to appease one and it was safely released into the wild. At least there's some positive outcome in all this," amended Pearl. The larger gem just sighed and rested her head on her hand. Steven just ate in silence as they spoke.

"I guess that's better than nothing, but still… Everyone? Even Biggs?" Pearl simply looked down at her knees in grief.

"We found her terrorizing a village in South America around eight hundred years ago. The gem we knew was nowhere to be seen."

Before more reminiscing could occur, the house was rocked by a shockwave that shook the foundation and sent Steven sprawling onto the floor. The obvious question of what was happening was answered as Peridot came stumbling out of her room with an old-fashioned fire extinguisher in her hands and scorch marks along her face.

"Steven, how do you operate one of these contraptions? Also, does anyone here have more information on cold fusion?"

"Just pull the pin out and spray the foam to put out the fire. And no, I don't know unless its two gems fusing while ice skating."

"Stand back, I'll handle it," spoke Garnet as she calmly walked in from her morning stretches. She opened her left hand and let the flames stream from the lab into her ruby until it was no more. Peridot muttered her thanks as she struggled with the unwieldly metal canister and stumbled back into her room. Bismuth was trying to pick her jaw off the arm of the chair.

"How in the name of Homeworld did you do that?!" she shouted incredulously.

"Steven taught me how to do it," was all she answered with before waving goodbye to them all and heading back outside. Bismuth was still gaping as the boy in question finished his breakfast and placed his dish in the sink.

"I hadn't gotten to that part yet," said a sheepish Pearl, "Sorry about that."

As the two continued to discuss the times gone by, the rest of the beach house was abuzz with activity. Steven headed outside for his latest bout of exercise with Garnet, Amethyst and Lapis. Peridot spent another day cooped up in her lab working on only the Diamonds know what, only interrupted by another visit from Greg to discuss his personal project. It was not until noon when Steven was having lunch that Garnet gathered all of them together for a meeting.

"I've realized we've been missing something in our preparations," spoke the fusion once everyone was gathered around the fire pit. Everyone, save for Steven who was eating his sandwich, had their eyes on her.

"We have all been acting in smaller groups or individuals when we should be a single team. We need some way to test our abilities as a group. Fortunately, there's a mission we need to take care of before Homeworld arrives."

"What, is there another gem artifact we need to find? How many of those did you lose during the original conflict anyways?" remarked Peridot.

"Hey, you try managing a couple hundred items while all kinds of chaos go on around you. It's not that easy!" rebuked Bismuth.

"I did. I spent the equivalent of three hundred years keeping track of warp pads and kindergartens even as colonization efforts were going on around me. I'll concede to you once you step into my role for a few centuries."

Bismuth, rather than get upset, chuckled at the techie's remark and allowed Garnet to continue.

"No, but it is imperative that we handle this before Homeworld arrive. I've located an abandoned Homeworld garrison about two hundred miles away in remarkably good shape. We need to remove its power supply so that Homeworld can't use it."

"Wait, why would we just take the power supply? Couldn't we destroy it to make sure?" asked Steven as he finished his lunch.

"That might be a viable option, but it could also be a potential asset for us. With it being so close to the temple, they could use it as a ground base to launch attacks on us or even create more gems. But by simply depowering the base, while keeping the core supply intact, we make it so we hold exclusive access to it unless Homeworld goes through the effort of repairing it," explained Pearl. Garnet nodded in agreement.

"I'd like to add that them going to the effort of recreating an outdated power supply would be highly unlikely. It would simply be more efficient to set up a temporary outpost if they wanted a terrestrial base to begin with," contributed Peridot. This seemed to raise everyone's spirits as the plan came together.

"It will also serve as an exercise as to how to operate as one cohesive unit. There will no doubt be various countermeasures to stop intruders, thus meaning we can learn each other's strengths and weaknesses in an effort to reach the power supply."

While Lapis glanced at Bismuth with distrust, the others saw no issue with the plan and strolled up to the warp pad. They reached their destination, a small clearing surrounded by towering trees, in a literal flash. After a short stroll through the pines and oaks they found their destination. Just as Garnet stated, the gem base was in excellent shape considering it was abandoned several millennia ago. The structure was surprisingly ornate given the pragmatic approach of Homeworld with the walls adorned with various splashes of yellow, blue, white and pink that swirled around in coalesced into the emblem of the Diamond Authority at multiple points. The overall shape was rectangular, three stories tall with cylindrical wings jutting out all four sides. As the group approached, Steven was suddenly stopped in his tracks by an invisible wall about fifty feet away from the entrance.

"A force field? Awesome, can we get one?!" cheered Steven, his optimism shining through much to the other gems' amusement. While Peridot was indeed considering such a defense mechanism, the others were puzzled as to how to breach the structure. Amethyst immediately went to her usual tactic of ramming into it at full speed with her spin dash. After the fifth attempt got her nowhere but closer to a concussion, Bismuth had to chuckle at her resilience and looked around for any control mechanism. Peridot took the same approach while Pearl and Garnet simply watched.

"They don't seem to be working together," murmured Pearl, anxious at their immediate reflex being to split up.

"It's only the first step. If we're stuck for too long, we'll band together and think of something."

"What are you guys doing?" inquired Lapis.

"Trying to figure out a way to bypass this force field," replied Pearl.

"Speaking of that, you might wanna stop your friend here. She's bashing her head in trying to knock it down," shouted Bismuth as she held a struggling Amethyst in her arms. The smaller scrapper's eyes were spinning in her head and her voice sounded too loopy for comfort.

Lapis merely shifted her eyes from side to side as she walked right past where the force field still holding up Steven and the other gems. As the others gawked at her she reached the front door and placed her hand on a small pad on the wall which read her handprint and deactivated the barrier. The others, even the stunned Amethyst still in Bismuth's grasp, was speechless save for Garnet who merely grinned at the sight.

"Guess they never took me out of the system when I got stuck. To this machine I'm still a Homeworld gem." With that, Amethyst was dropped with an unceremonious thud and proceeded to charge in headfirst. The others quickly followed behind with Garnet still shaking her head in bemusement at the turn of events.

After making their way past the entrance way, a hallway lit with nothing but pink lights from the floor they found themselves in the main chamber of the base. Inside was a large workstation with multiple seats clearly built for smaller gems such as peridots that also defied the age of the building. Somehow the place appeared to be in perfect working order with only the staff leaving in the wake of the conflict with the Crystal Gems. While most of the group simply looked around, Peridot gleefully ran up to one of the control consoles and typed her way past the encryptions and into the main files.

"According to these schematics, the power supply is actually beneath this central room. All I need to do is find the controls to reveal it." The rest of the group, especially Pearl, was utterly baffled at how smoothly their mission was going. At this rate getting their goal would be a literal stroll in the park. That ease changed, however, when a small spherical droid appeared and started scanning the room. When it reached Steven, however, the droid flew straight back from the slot in the wall it emerged from and all the power in the base was cut off.

"WANTED REBEL DETECTED! DEPLOYING PROTECTIVE MEASURES!" blared from the walls. Everyone, save for an anxious Lapis who felt vulnerable with no liquid present, geared up for a fight. The alarm soon went quiet as several robotic spheres, similar to the ones Peridot used on her maintenance trips, began rolling out of slots in the walls. Once they were all released they began rolling everywhere until coming to a complete stop. They all stood in silence as they expected the round droids to attack, set up a trap, or some other maneuver and yet nothing happened. Several minutes passed with no one moving a muscle until Amethyst, her patience having been eroded by the quiet and tension, shouted "Are these stupid robots gonna fight or what?!"

That turned out to be a major mistake as the robots took the sound as the cue to attack by shooting multiple lasers at the purple gem, causing her to dodge and run about as she dodged the fire. This quickly escalated as every robonoid began firing lasers, all of them causing profound discomfort whenever they hit their mark, in random directions forcing the gems to scatter. Steven tried summoning his bubble shield, but that proved a liability as the lasers refracted off its surface meaning more fire for the other gems to avoid.

"Nice going, Amethyst!" shouted Pearl as she tried to deflect the beams heading her way with her spear.

"Now's not the time for bickering!" ordered Garnet, thinking proactively and using her ice powers to freeze many of the robonoids to the floor. "Remember this is also an example of how to work together."

Bismuth trying to squash many of the spheres under her foot, but due to the being the bulkiest of the group she was taking the brunt of the attack. While she was still standing, it was obvious the lasers were beginning to wear her down as her movements became sluggish. Peridot, trying desperately to control the robots with her ferrokinesis, offered her advice.

"Go for the control console! By damaging that it should disrupt the program that's controlling these nuisances!"

The larger gem took the hint and charged through more beams to reach the central console, which she noticed was remarkably unharmed despite the rampant fire. She quickly morphed her hands into hammers and smashed the main station to pieces. At first the plan seemed to work as the incessant lasers stopped. Then the alarm started blaring once again and the robonoids went fully berserk, now rolling and bouncing erratically while resuming their laser barrage. Even Garnet began to get overwhelmed as even when she managed to freeze or smash any of them, more filed in from the walls to take their place. It seems that Bismuth also destroyed whatever inhibition was keeping the swarm of spherical menaces from going all-out to avoid damaging the hardware. Now they had nothing to hold them back from whittling down the intruders until they were no more.

Steven was desperately trying to reflect the lasers with his shield, but it still led to more fire heading towards the gems every time he managed to block one. Pearl was becoming exhausted as the fire continued along with many of the robonoids colliding with her. Amethyst tried to corral them with her whip, but now they were too out of control to manage. Bismuth was still getting hammered. Peridot had no ability to control them thanks to the constant fire interrupting her concentration. Lapis felt completely helpless as she tried flying and outmaneuvering as many as she could, but she was still taking heavy damage. Garnet, who had some success at freezing them before, now could not resort to using either element out of risk of freezing or burning one of her teammates.

Eventually the fight became too much for Lapis as the aquatic gem was gunned down and fell to the floor with a dangerous thus. The short but painful plummet, combined with the constant laser fire and her natural frailty given that she was never built for combat forced her to the ground with a piercing thud. The robonoids began pounding on her body as more laser beams found their mark.

"LAPIS!" shouted Steven and Peridot in shock, the latter forgoing her own safety to charge over to her comrade. She swatted away as many of the bots as she could, and raised her to eye level.

"Peri, what are you doing? Protect yourself…" she mumbled as unconsciousness began to set in. The tenacious scientist was not having that.

"If you think I would to abandon my comrade and most valued companion, you are mistaken. We need to get you outside so the others can handle this."

"But-"

"Did you hear me?! I may not be much use in this conflict either, but I will not abandon you! And I am certain that none of the others would. As Crystal Gems and as friends."

Lapis, touched by the sentimentality, grabbed onto Peridot's hand. As soon as the two touched, however, their bodies changed into pure light save for their gemstones. The others were stupefied as the light coalesced into a new being. She stood as tall as Garnet with bright blue-green skin and a hairdo that rose to a point at the top with a loose back that flowed down to her neck. She also possessed four arms and a pair of heterochromatic eyes, the left blue and the right green. Her outfit was a vibrant, greenish-blue short-sleeved dress that parted past her waists and draped around her legs in two separate pieces. Her two gems were a triangular turquoise on her forehead and a tear-shaped one at the top of her spine. Upon first forming, she looked down at her own body in bewilderment. It was only when one of the robotic orbs bashed into her face that snapped her out of her trance. Without a word, the new fusion held out her hand and forced the robot to stop in midair. With a slight squeeze of that hand, the robot began to melt into a puddle of reflective liquid.

Noticing that one of ranks had fallen, the bombardment stopped and all the droids turned their attention on the new fusion trying to analyze this unknown new threat. Said fusion simply glanced at the hundreds of robonoids around her with a look of vague interest.

She then spoke with an aloof, yet confident tone. "I am Turquoise, and you have proven a grave danger to myself and my allies. It appears that I am greatly outnumbered by your ranks. There are roughly one hundred and fifty of you remaining compared to me."

At that moment, she raised her lower set of arms and forced the liquid remains of the robonoid to float and then slash three of the nearest droids into scrap with a flick of her wrists. In only seconds the now destroyed robonoids were liquefied and merged into one large band of silvery liquid.

"Your numbers are insufficient. Sucks to be you."

From that point on, Turquoise did not speak as she sprouted her own aquatic wings, now colored blue-green with a noticeable metallic shine to them, and flew over the swarm as fast she could, given the close quarters. As she flew at headlong speed, her new weapon cut down the spheres and dodged every shot they fired at her. After reducing one third of them to piles of parts, Turquoise stopped in the center of the room and let the deluge of liquid silver death swirl around her. As each robot fell they were melted and assimilated into the silvery hurricane and grew larger, protecting the new gem at its center and growing more powerful. After several minutes the robots were all destroyed and Turquoise allowed the maelstrom to stop. She had a relaxed smirk on her face as she walked up to Garnet, who spent the entire time beaming with pride and excitement.

"The power supply is under this floor, correct?" she asked. Her fellow fusion simply nodded. Without missing a beat, all the stannic liquid merged into a large drill head and tunneled into the floor until a noticeable pink glow appeared. Pearl simply reached down and grabbed the object they sought - an octagonal sphere still radiating with pink energy. In an instant the sphere was bubbled and sent to the temple.

"That was amazing!" cheered Steven as he stared with starry-eyes at Turquoise. Unfortunately, his attention made her face scrunch in disgust and split back into Peridot and Lapis. While the former was uncharacteristically silent, the latter was on her hands and knees panting as if she was scared for her life.

"Whoa, are you alright?" asked Bismuth, concerned by her sudden collapse. The neurotic aquatic, too shaken to be angered, tried to reply.

"It's just that- Last time- It- She- We- I can't-"

"I get it, bad experience. But take a deep breath now, everything's fine."

Lapis did as she was told and inhaled deeply. Within seconds she had her breath under control again, but was now rather perplexed.

"Why are you helping me? I threatened to throw you into the sun."

"One, because I frankly needed a kick like that. Two, you're still a Crystal Gem and I always stand by my teammates. And three," she brought herself down to Lapis' level and whispered, "Because I was uncomfortable with fusion at first. You're not alone there."

Seeing this display of comradery warmed the other gems' hearts and they all strolled out of the now-useless base with content faces all around. Before leaving, however, Peridot just had to get her hands on the force field control panel. Steven helped out by ripping the panel out of the wall with some effort and the group headed back with their mission complete and their unity stronger just as Garnet intended.

**Well, seeing as my birthday is tomorrow, I decided to give all my wonderful readers a gift: My first original fusion! Hope you all enjoyed Turquoise and tune in next time as the Crystal Gems continue to up their game.**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Especially since this story recently hits _5,000 hits! _I never imagined this story would get this kind of response on this and it's all thanks to you! As per usual, please feel free to leave a review and have a wonderful birthday for yourself whenever it comes around!**


	22. Arrival

**And now it's finally time for the Crystal Gems to ready themselves for zero-hour. How will they all take the upcoming return of Homeworld? Time to find out!**

After their trek to the deserted Homeworld base, the Crystal Gems were in high spirits as the preparations continued. Bismuth and Peridot soon found themselves chatting about all the possible trinkets they could create with their freshly pilfered technology. With the former's talent in metallurgy and crafting and the latter's mechanical knowledge they became fast friends and spent the day in Peridot's room tinkering.

With those two holed up building some new gadgets, Steven resumed his training with the remaining four. The youngling was getting the hang of his new weapons and was now testing them in combat. While he could now add the whip, spear and gauntlets to his repertoire, he was far from a master but the others were pleased with his progress nevertheless. Lapis had also grown much more proficient with using her water control in battle and was quickly becoming a fighter on par with the veteran members. After several hours of work, the gems called it a day and found Greg and Connie waiting for them to learn about the day's mission. The evening was filled with jokes and banter until the subject turned to Turquoise.

"You guys should have seen them! They were incredible!" boasted Steven as he ate his dinner as the conversation went on. Lapis blushed at his compliments, but still looked uncomfortable about the topic.

"Thanks but… I don't think I'll be doing that again," remarked Lapis much to the boy's shock.

"Why not? You and Peridot were awesome together! I bet Turquoise could beat a room full of Homeworld gems by herself!"

"That may be the case, but fusion is no laughing matter," added Pearl, "Heck, even I was flustered when Rose and I fused for the first time. Now, admittedly, I was less reluctant and-"

"Careful Pearl, there's kids here. We don't want things to get too steamy!" jeered Amethyst causing her to laugh heartily as Pearl's cheeks turned blue.

"Lapis, don't stress yourself out," spoke Garnet, "Fusion is a unique experience to every gem and it happens at its own pace. None of us will pressure you into something you aren't 100% comfortable with." As Lapis smiled at her, she continued.

"Now I understand you had a terrible time as Malachite, but you know Peridot is nothing like that. A healthy fusion is one that is greater than the sum of its parts and it seems Turquoise can be one. You two can explore that more or simply save it for later. It's entirely your choice."

"She's right, you know," said Connie, "I may really enjoy being Stevonnie, but that doesn't mean anyone would be. It's especially weird the first time."

"Wow. Thanks guys." Lapis was touched by their concern and openness. She felt a weight lift off her dainty shoulders and headed outside to enjoy the evening ocean air while the rest cleaned up the place before one last round of training before their newest member headed off to bed.

* * *

For the next few days the group settled into a comfortable rhythm combining Steven's progressing training, concocting new ideas to ward off invaders and the occasional goofy occurrence that kept the mood light. Whether it was Amethyst trying to get Bismuth into professional wrestling, Peridot's persistence at learning the details of nuclear energy or Pearl trying to keep the house tidy with so many new occupants around, everything seemed to be at ease. That all changed when Garnet revealed a recent vision she had.

"Homeworld's coming in three days," she announced to Steven and the other gems after another training session at the Sky Arena. The only sounds that could be heard for many agonizing seconds was the wind blowing through the group and the contents of Steven's water bottle being emptied onto the floor as he was frozen in place halfway between raising the container to his mouth for a drink.

The entire group sans Garnet shouted "WHAT?!" in dismay and began clamoring over each other until the fusion regained their attention by stomping the arena so hard it rattled the entire structure.

"We all know panicking is not going to solve the issue. We've spent weeks readying ourselves and now we need to take stock of anything we can use to protect the base."

"Peridot and I did get a start on making our own version of the force field like that other base. Ours could even alter its size and density for a more focused defense if it's needed." replied Bismuth. The others took some relief in knowing the temple could not be simply bombed out of oblivion before they had a fighting chance.

"I'm probably the best chance we have if they send some huge ship out of us. If they come too close, I can use the ocean to stop them," added Lapis. The group also appreciated having such a force on their side.

"And if worst comes to worst and there's a full-scale battle, we'll have to rely on tactics. Fortunately, that's something we had to rely on back in the old days, so we have plenty of ways to outsmart them," contributed Pearl, further alleviating their fears that Homeworld would simply overwhelm them with superior tech and forces.

The only ones who did not look too convinced was Steven and, of all gems, Amethyst who appeared to be trying to sink into the floor by staring at it hard enough. The others only partially took notice and chalked it up to nerves. Now they had a strict time limit before they had a serious threat on their hands. The rest of the day went by in a blur as the group ran left and right beginning to fortify the temple, cram as much training in for Steven as possible and confront the possibility of a second war for the planet Earth.

* * *

The next day was spent training as hard as possible. Since everyone knew their enemy's goal was to capture Steven and sentence him to Rose Quartz's crimes they had to be entirely sure he could defend himself. The main trio spent hours drilling in how to use their weapons and the time has come to test him once again. All of the Crystal Gems, save for Peridot as she toiled away in her lab, were at the DeMayo family field standing around Steven for a more intensive sparring session.

"Steven, this time we want you to retaliate as we come at you. Don't be afraid of causing us any harm, we need to see how well you can fight back against a wide array of opponents," instructed Pearl. Garnet continued from there.

"And try using the different weapons this time. It will keep your opponents guessing and could be the difference in a battle. Now get ready. Come at me first."

With the rules laid out, Steven readied his shield and began running straight towards Garnet. The fusion quickly summoned her gauntlets and sent a punch straight towards him. Rather than dodging, the younger warrior let the blow push him backwards. Garnet rushed in to take advantage of his mistake, but soon found herself on the receiving end of Steven's gauntlets. The two traded blows back and forth, neither one making a hit until Pearl rushed in to intercept him. He only barely saw her coming out of his peripheral vision and leaped out of the way.

Much to Pearl's surprise, however, Steven lowered his shield at her next attempt to spear him. He then summoned his own whip and proceeded to catch her by her legs and send her tumbling with a quick pull. The slender gem grinned in appreciation of his strategy, but he was then met by Bismuth barreling towards him and trying to grab him. Steven summoned his gauntlets in retaliation and began meeting her fists with his own. Amethyst took the chance as the two clashed to leap out in surprise and bowled right into Steven. As he was flung backwards, however, he regained his senses and forced himself back on his feet and summoned his shield as the pudgy rapscallion charged at him again. Rather than just stopping her charge, however, Steven chucked his shield and sent Amethyst sprawling mid-lunge. Once again, though, he did not have time to revel in his victory as Lapis began circling him high above his head and began pelting him with spheres of water the size of his head.

At first he was able to dodge many of the projectiles, but soon Lapis began thinking outside the box and reshaping the liquid after it hit the ground and soon Steven found himself under fire from every direction. He knew he could summon his bubble to protect himself, but he thought of another solution. Steven instead summoned a spear and began parrying and blocking several shots while still maneuvering around and eventually made his way to Lapis herself where she still proved woefully inept in hand-to-hand combat and was quickly knocked down and out by a few strikes. The others were thrilled by his progress and decided to pass him with flying colors. Even as he was being praised, Steven knew his training was not over and needed to keep improving. One of the first lessons Pearl taught him about war was the battle was never over until either formally surrendered or there was nothing left to oppose. The rest of the day went by with the other gems practicing with each other, Steven pushing his body to his limit and Peridot eventually joining them after making some great progress which she planned to show off tomorrow.

* * *

Sure enough, the next day was kicked off with Peridot proclaiming she had made some new technological doodads that could help the Crystal Gems. With Homeworld due to show up tomorrow, they welcomed any advantage they could get. So far she had kept any project of hers secret save for Bismuth who ended up becoming her partner in crime thanks to her experience with construction. The two tinkerers had the entire group, now including Greg, assembled around the new island which held their invention under a bedsheet. Even in the face of a small hostile invasion, Peridot's sense of dramatics never wavered.

While she wanted to hold off the reveal for dramatic tension, Amethyst urged her to get on with it already and thus let Bismuth reveal their creation - a rectangular box that mostly resembled a common household safe. The only way they could tell it was of any special value was the fluorescent panel made to read handprints instead of numbered keys which was clearly taken from the pillaged gem base.

"Behold! Our very own portable force field! We've managed to rewire the panel into a smaller, easily movable form without compromising the integrity of the shield. Observe."

With a press of her hand on the pad, a massive pink bubble of energy emerged and quickly spread through the house until it eclipsed the walls and soon covered the entire beach house in a translucent pink dome. To reiterate her point, Bismuth then walked outside and began pounding away at the dome with an old axe she forged centuries ago. Despite still looking as sharp as ever, it could not make a dent against the shield even with all her striking force.

"As you can see, we are now safe from any sort of large-scale bombardment or infiltration by Homeworld forces. While it is impervious to external damage, it will allow us to travel between the outdoors and the house without any interference. We'll need all of you to input your handprints into the scanner so that it will recognize your gem and allow you to enter."

Bismuth, having already inserted her sample, walked back in with no trouble just as Peridot described. The others all did as she asked, but not without giving her praise as they did so.

"Nice going, dweebs."

"I'm just grateful we won't have to resort to building a bunker. We still don't know what happened to the last four."

"Sweet."

In Garnet's case, a simple thumbs-up sufficed.

Steven, however, instead had a question on his mind. "So what did Bismuth do to make this?"

"I helped engineer the power source. We ended up creating a generator using some of that lightning from Peridot's room. I also added a security measure in case someone tries to sabotage it, but that's about it. We were going to use the power source from the base, but we have other plans for that," responded the bulkier gem. Greg, even though he had no gemstone to classify, walked up to the green techie and whispered to her something none of the others picked up. Apparently he was still having some personal project developed by her which only those two and Bismuth seemed privy to. The others just assumed it was some mundane request and let him discuss it when the time came. He then hastily ran out the door insisting he needed to order more car wax.

The rest of their last free day was uneventful with more training, though there was a noticeable mixture of tension and relief between all of them. They all took solace in that they stood a fighting chance, but that also reminded them that a battle was coming to their doorstep any minute.

* * *

It was the day. Their time was finally up. Homeworld was coming any minute and now they had to face the music. They were all aware that while Steven was supposedly their target, they all faced the risk of being hauled off to a different galaxy for their resistance. That was also assuming they avoided being reduced to shards by their opponents baying for their hypothetical blood. The group was all taking this in different ways.

Garnet was, as usual, remaining calm and collected. She was not only their most versatile fighter, but also had a serious element of surprise with her new fire and ice powers that could easily throw their attackers for a loop. The rigid gems on Homeworld already thought she was a war machine, but now she was essentially a mutant in their eyes. Something about that made her smile and want to stick it to them all the more. She could not foresee the outcome of the battle but she knew they would not get Steven until her and both of her components were ash.

Pearl found herself bizarrely nostalgic about the whole affair. This was her life for so long. Facing a mammoth conflict with only a ragtag bunch of oddities, staying optimistic even with death potentially one minute away, never giving up even when the only viable option was to raise the white flag. She could almost laugh at how familiar this all was for her. Even if Rose was not here to fight with them, she knew that gem would be smiling at how far they had all come. Especially Steven whom Pearl was exploding with pride for, even as the fear of his safety invaded her mind.

Amethyst could not be any different from her usual self. In any other scrap, she would be cracking jokes or psyching herself and her buddies up to whoop Homeworld to the next galaxy. She would still crack smart-aleck remarks, but ever since news of the imminent approach of Homeworld she had become mostly quiet. She was hyper-focused on her training, could be found staring at the walls or the floor for minutes on end, and would shrug off any attempt at comfort or concern as she was just thinking. It was the only way the little gem could stomach her anxiety at this point. She hated to admit it, but this was the most afraid she had been in decades.

Bismuth was stressed in the best and the worst ways. On one had she was already slipping back into her groove, ready to show those upper-crusts what she was made out of. They could never break her or her team and were going to pay for trying. On the other hand, she knew that same attitude was what landed her in a bubble for several millennia. She could almost certainly Steven would never consider doing such a thing shy of her going rogue, but she was almost more fearful of herself than the coming battle. What if she could not stop from becoming that same reckless gem who hurt someone for no reason?

Peridot and Lapis Lazuli were both more nervous than they had ever been in their entire lives. While both of them proved their worth with the ruby encounter weeks ago, and have refined their skills since then, this was their first real battle. This was bigger than their scuffle with Adamite and Cinnabar, two rogue gems who seemed more lost than truly dangerous. This was a full-scale attack by a force they both intimately knew was capable of wiping out planets. Sure they failed to take the Earth, but that was when Rose Quartz had a small army of her own. There was not enough of them to count off to reach double digits. Peridot was banking on how overconfident the Diamonds were that they would send a weaker force their way. Lapis was trying to put on a brave face so she would not relive that day she flooded the house.

Steven, of all people, was actually ready for Homeworld to show up. He should have been terrified, and to some degree he was, but now he was just sick and tired at how they had put his whole family on edge. He wished there was another way out of this, but those rubies proved that Yellow and Blue Diamond were in no mood for talking. They were out for his head, ready to have him executed for his mother's crime, and he was not sacrificing himself to them again. The only way he would leave Earth again is on a space adventure with the Crystal Gems or if he was bound, gagged, and dragged off world against his will.

Hours passed as the group alternated between watching out windows for any signs of trouble, standing around the beach house in awkward silence, getting some last-minute training in, or trying to make conversation to lighten the mood. Then, at just before two in the afternoon, the group spotted a familiar conical ship appear in the skyline before descending on them. Besides that, there was a few roaming eyes much like the ones Lapis trashed, and some slimmer models that closer resembled jets, but in the shape of diamonds. What they could not see was a second wave of fighters and a scouting vessel waiting in the atmosphere in case a large-scale airstrike was necessary, but the sight of only a handful of ships gave the group hope. That hope dwindled, however, as many recognized the ship leading the charge. All eight of the Crystal Gems stood on the beach to meet the invading force head on. The ships stopped around fifty feet above the ocean and two figures emerged from the top of the ship. A miniscule flying gem with a teardrop gem on her cheek and a look of pure smugness on her face. Beside her stood a stocky yellow gem with two circular gems in place of ears with a look of complete stoicism.

"Attention Rose Quartz, you are under arrest for the shattering of Pink Diamond, hundreds of other war crimes committed from your former rebellion, and destroying a personal palanquin of the Diamonds. If you surrender now your fellow rebels will be spared, otherwise they will be brought to Homeworld and shattered," spouted Aquamarine as she literally looked down on them. Topaz was as impassive as ever.

"Ugh, you two again? What are you even doing here?" groaned Steven, clearly unhappy with the pair from his last run-in with them.

"Blue Diamond _personally_ selected me to lead this brigade seeing as I captured you once already. Now are you going to surrender willingly again like an intelligent being or do you insist on fighting back?"

Steven's only answer was to brandish his shield and take a stance as the others all did the same. The petite commander rolled her eyes and grinned, amused by their defiance.

"Very well then. Topaz, go collect Rose Quartz while the troops fight off the rebel scum."

**Yep, Aquamarine and Topaz are leading the charge against the Crystal Gems. How will our favorite team of alien women fare? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much fore reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	23. Battle for the Temple

**Well, it's time for the action to start! The Crystal Gems v. Aquamarine's fleet kicks off right now!**

The various ships opened their bottom hatches and allowed dozens of gems to land on the beach. They seemed to be a mostly generic mix of gem fighters with rubies, amethysts and jaspers all lining up to strike down their enemy. Judging from their complacent expressions, they were expecting an easy victory. Aquamarine, confident as ever seeing the numbers advantage, did not even bother getting involved. Instead she laid down on her front and sat her chin in her hands as if this was pleasant musical performance instead of what appeared to be a massacre in the making.

* * *

Steven had to fight down the temptation to run back into the beach house and stay in the confines of the force field. Homeworld was not backing down, so why should he? As he watched the dozens of belligerent soldiers charge onto the sand and begin meeting the Crystal Gems in combat, he spotted Topaz leap off the main ship and charge towards him. He really wished she had not shown up, since he could see a gem desperate to break free from Homeworld. Alas, the pair proved too afraid to leave and remained loyal to the Diamonds. He could respect that sort of dedication and the apparent love the duo had for each other, but that did not mean he would hold back.

Just as they did last time, Topaz split into her two components and continued to bolt towards him ready to capture him in their fused body. He decided to run straight towards them and, just as the two tried to fuse with him stuck in the middle, jumped up to eye level, brought out a gauntlet and nailed one of them in face.

He still murmured a silent apology as the stricken gem flew for over thirty feet, causing her partner to drop her detached expression for one of absolute shock. It was obvious she wanted to run to her other half, but the left-gemmed Topaz simply summoned her pugil stick and made a move. The young hybrid began drawing on his training with Garnet and Bismuth, using his smaller size to his benefit and bobbing and weaving around every strike. Just as he began to feel confident in his ability, the right half re-entered the fray and made the fight two on one. Now he had a severe disadvantage, but soon realized the others were in a similar spot.

Pearl and Garnet had their backs to each other as half a dozen jaspers tried to clobber them with either crash helmets much like the same jasper they fought months ago or with large, flat swords that looked more fitting for beheadings than straightforward combat. He could already see multiple other orange gems either frozen in various places or trying to fight despite visible burns, but it was apparent their tricks were going to run out. They could potentially fuse into Sardonyx to level the playing field, but the relentless attack stopped them from focusing long enough to pull off the fusion dance.

Peridot was squaring off with a small squadron of rubies who, similarly to the ones they fought earlier, were quickly getting frustrated at how a lowly technician was besting professional fighters in combat. It helped that Peridot was manipulating dozens of tools from her workshop in a barrage of hammers, saws and screwdrivers to keep her enemies distracted while also dealing out a fair share of pain.

Bismuth was keeping her head level as four amethysts tried to beat her into submission. Unfortunately for her opponents, the veteran was keeping them guessing with the various shapes her hands could take which threw of their focus and left them open to counterattack. She even seemed to be throwing the occasional taunt to further the distraction and keep herself in one piece.

Amethyst was fighting like a caged animal, clearly disturbed and looking ready to jump out of her own skin at any moment. As she tried to hold off multiple amethysts and rubies at the same time, she was zipping all over the beach and flinging the Homeworld gems into each other like multicolored bowling pins. Even as she seemed on top of the situation, her face was full of clear anxiety and fear. Her eyes kept darting over to her friends, but worried that too much time spent lingering would mean her death.

Lapis Lazuli was also suffering from obvious anxiety, but was actually taking control of the situation. Despite being surrounded by half a dozen Homeworld gems consisting of multiple jaspers, which greatly disturbed her in just how eager they seemed to hurt her, she fought through the discomfort and sent many of them flying with the ocean. She put her weeks of training into action as she summoned literal blocks of water to squash them, razor-sharp discs to slice their forms and chains to incapacitate them long enough for her to drag them out to sea. Unfortunately, her opponents were remarkably stubborn with some simply swimming back to continue the slugfest. With her lack of hand-to-hand training, she knew they would have already beaten her in a straight fight.

All the while Steven was still locked in a battle with Topaz. He hoped somewhere deep down the gems were holding back, but it seemed they had no choice but obey the order to take him hostage. Over and over again they tried the same tactic of fusing together with him stuck in the middle and over and over again he sent one or even both of them reeling. Even if he was holding his own, he could feel that adrenaline was one of the only things keeping his body in top shape. He was already sweating and could feel his limbs start to ache from the constant maneuvering. Had it not been for Garnet making him run laps around town or do so many squats he would already be down for the count. He made a mental note to start eating more granola after this was all said and done.

* * *

Aquamarine was sorely disappointed. She assumed that when the Crystal Gems decided to resist capture, the entire affair would be over and done with in an instant. Yet here they were, several minutes later, outnumbered at least four to one and they kept going! She scoffed at the nerve of those traitors. Her entertainment was officially ruined and that imbecilic clod Topaz still did not have Rose Quartz in custody. She briefly contemplated entering the fray herself, using her gravity wand to retrieve Rose, but that did not seem appropriate. Perhaps some grand gesture to crush their spirits? Yes, that seemed most appropriate to her. She sprouted her wings and fluttered back into the ship and immediately contacted the scouting ship in orbit.

"Satellite Scanner VL4 reporting," spoke the voice of the ship's agate supervisor, "We have spotted a force field protecting the main entrance to the rebels' base. Although constructed from outdated gem technology, it must be deactivated before any large-scale attack."

Aquamarine grit her teeth. So those rebels actually had some basic defenses? Fine by her, she would enjoy it more if she could power through their shields and then pulverize them.

"Have you been able to get a scan of the structure despite the force field?" she asked the agate.

"Affirmative, the structure is unremarkable save for an active warp pad being inside. Near it is a pocket-space doorway that we have not been able to analyze the contents of."

"Perfect! Send in a squad of infiltrators through the warp pad and get that shield lowered. Once that is done, send in the bulk of our forces. That will be all."

With that, Aquamarine giggled maliciously as she waited to see the pink dome fall. Once Topaz had Rose Quartz in custody, then she would make her watch her own forces be destroyed. Then she would drag her back to the Diamonds, have her executed and she would receive a promotion and maybe even her own fleet to command instead of just one ship. The diminutive captain kept her eyes on the battle with renewed interest, waiting for the moment to snuff out the rebellion once and for all.

* * *

All factors considered, the Crystal Gems were impressed at how well they were holding up. Even still, they knew they would lose a war of attrition and needed to gain an advantage somehow or they would fall. Eventually they all managed to gather their group into one tight circle with the Homeworld gems surrounding them. Steven was still focused on Topaz, her expression once again blank. The other soldiers were clearly irritated at how much time this was taking and how stubbornly their enemy was refusing to go down.

For many seconds they remained silent until all heck broke loose. Steven was met with Topaz and two other amethysts moving in to catch him. Now his reflexes were being pushed to their limits as he blocked the three oncoming attackers with his shield while also keeping an eye out for more opponents.

That seemed unlikely, however, as the rest kept their heads up despite the chaos emerging once again as gems weaved in and out of battles so quickly it was impossible to keep track of it all. A few select highlights include Pearl double-wielding spears to hold off a pair of particularly aggressive jaspers, Lapis and Peridot staying by each other's side as almost a dozen rubies ambushed them and Garnet unleashing the full brunt of her elemental abilities resulting in several unfortunate gems being either scorched until they retreated into their cores or being frozen into submission before quickly being smashed into submission.

Steven was proud of all of them and, although a part of him always protested fighting, found a bizarre thrill in all of this. He could only imagine how his mother and the others felt in the old days fighting like this on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, his reminiscing gave one of the invaders the opportunity to break his guard with a punch right to the gut. As he clutched his gem in pain, the now-fused Topaz raised her staff to knock him unconscious only to feel a whip grab her by the neck and force her on her knees.

"Steven, get out of here! Run away!" shouted Amethyst as she struggled to hold back the larger gem. As Steven heeded her command to retreat into the beach house so he could get his bearings, the two Homeworld amethysts noticed the small scrapper with a look of amusement.

"Heh, look at that runt. Must have come out of the ground wrong!" one of them jeered as Amethyst's whip snapped allowing Topaz to chase after the dazed Steven. Before she could pursue, the other one got her attention.

"Guess that traitor Rose doesn't mind having rejects on her team. Let's show that defect what a real quartz can do!"

The short rebel felt her fear melt away as rage overtook her mind and blindly charged at the two larger gems. Now she was only concerned on letting Steven get to relative safety and showing these blowhards who was boss. She charged right at them with a spin attack only for the two to dodge without much effort.

Both of them summoned whips of their own and began snapping at the smaller gem as she rolled around at her maximum speed. Realizing a direct approach was not working, Amethyst leaped straight into the air and then cannonballed back down in her purple puma form. The Homeworld gems were surprised by her sudden change of size long enough for her to elbow drop them hard enough to send them back into their gems. After quickly bubbling the two and sending them into the temple, Amethyst ran off to rejoin the fray with some of her confidence restored. Maybe she had what it took to survive this insane battle after all.

* * *

Steven could still feel the wind being knocked out of him by Topaz, but managed to stumble into the force field and sit down on the porch. He regretted leaving his family to fight for themselves, but he knew they would all have him take a breather rather than risk being grabbed when he is at less than his best.

As he got his head put back together, he heard a clang as Topaz ran headfirst into the barrier. The yellow fusion quickly got back on her feet and began swinging her mace staff at the pink dome to no avail. Steven merely sat and watched as she struggled to make a dent for several minutes before he commented.

"Don't waste your time. There's no breaking this thing. You shouldn't exhaust yourself like that."

This made Topaz pause and stare at him with one of her eyebrows raised in confusion. Here she was trying to drag him to certain death and he was concerned about her well-being? It reminded her of the first time they met and he seemed to genuinely sympathize with her. It made no sense to her. His later statements only made her more perturbed.

"Look, I know it's hard. You feel like you have nowhere to go, but that's not the case. I can tell you'd rather be somewhere else. Somewhere you're accepted and can be happy."

Now the gem just stood there totally lost. Steven made his way down the steps, though staying behind the force field, and looked up to her.

"Earth can be that place. We won't judge you here, we won't separate you, and we'll be happy to have you. I know you're scared of the Diamonds and being forced apart, but we'd never do that to you. I've seen how miserable you are and I'm sorry I didn't make this offer last time, but you can stay with us. Topaz, you can be a Crystal Gem and stay together forever."

The fusion actually put down her weapon hearing that. It almost sounded too good to be true, but his face conveyed absolute sincerity. She could hardly believe it. A place where no one would threaten to separate them? Where no one would use the relationship between them to pull them around? Even after everything she has done?

Before she could give her response, however, Steven heard something coming in through the warp pad and rushed inside. He was stumped as to what it could be, but he quickly understood as he saw four peridots wearing limb enhancers now standing in his home. He locked eyes with the technicians for a second before two of them turned their artificial fingers into laser cannons and began firing at him while one of them ran over to the force field generator. The last stood at the temple door and attached a bizarre circular device on the door that began drawing a holographic image of the temple in midair. Steven, despite having no idea it was transmitting information back to the scouting ship and to Aquamarine, knew it was trouble and tried to get his bearings.

"Oh come on! We just remodeled the place!" he shouted in exasperation as he ducked behind the island as the two enhanced invaders kept firing. While the damage seemed mostly cosmetic, he did not want to keep seeing his home demolished.

"Surrender yourself to Homeworld and this assault will cease," droned one of the attacking peridots. Already knowing him giving up was not an option, Steven jumped on top of the island with his shield in hand and charged for the two green invaders. He pushed himself forward even as the barrage grew heavier and eventually bashed one in the face with a shield. The other quickly took to the sky using the same helicopter maneuver the Crystal Gem Peridot used to escape them. Steven felt as if he was at a disadvantage until Bismuth stormed in, hearing the carnage from outside, and tackled the flying gem to the ground.

"Get off me, you traitor!" screamed the peridot underneath Bismuth. The larger gem was not amused.

"I may be a traitor, but at least I don't let technology fight my battles. Now get out of our house!" She then proceeded to pound the smaller gem's head in with her hammer until she receded into her gem. Meanwhile Steven kept up the attack on the other peridot until she was forced into her gem as well by repeated shield smacks.

Before the two could celebrate, the peridot analyzing the force field generator seemed to make a breakthrough as she removed one of her enhancers to scan her hand. That proved to be a mistake.

"Unknown gem signature detected. Initiating defensive measures," spoke the recorded voice of Peridot before an electric shock caused the offending peridot to retreat into her stone as well. The lone survivor of the attack now looked incredibly skittish as she stood against two irritated rebels.

"Stay back! I'm not afraid to use this!" she threatened while pointing the laser cannon at them. Bismuth, now thoroughly done with this entire meeting, walked right up to the intruder and ripped off the enhancer on one of her hands, then dragged her away and forced her to touch the generator. One painful static shock later and the house was clear once again. The four peridots were soon bubbled and sent inside the temple proper.

"Thanks Bismuth, that was too close," complimented Steven as he walked up the device which now displayed a full image of the temple. Before he or Bismuth could do anything though, it spontaneously deactivated and fell to the floor.

"No problem, but we need you back outside. Do whatever you need to do, then head out." With the scuffle finished, Bismuth ran back outside into the main fray. That left Steven alone in the house for a few seconds before charging back outside looking to aid the other Crystal Gems. Topaz, still standing outside, stood rooted in the same spot as she contemplated the boy's offer from before.

* * *

Aquamarine possessed many wonderful qualities, but patience was not one of them. She was still glued to the battle in front of her waiting for that accursed bubble to drop so she could bombard the rebels and claim victory. And yet she had not heard a single word from the scout ship regarding the infiltration efforts. What was taking those simpletons so long?! Her mental grumbling was interrupted by an incoming message from the scouting satellite.

"We have lost all trace of the peridot infiltrators. Their limb enhancers have been deactivated, meaning they have been captured or potentially shattered. We have no discernible cause for why they were defeated."

The undersized commander felt her rage hit a new high at this. She was about to insist they send every available gem that ship had into the rebel base and demolish it from the inside out, but she forced herself to calm down.

"Any luck scanning the base interior for information?"

"Affirmative. We have a full schematic of the base. We have found several captured gems in one of the lower levels."

That got Aquamarine's attention. If they could not deactivate the force field, they could rescue the captured gems and get more troops to overwhelm the gems with. And it would still prove their flimsy defenses were no match for her brilliance! All this brought the petite commander to full stature again.

"Find a way to recover those gems, but do not send in any more troops. I suspect that Rose had one of her minions intervene and stop the infiltration. We can't risk those rebels getting involved again. That will be all, agate."

In reality, Aquamarine knew they could spare another peridot or two. After all, they were relatively quick to replace. No, she thought it would be oh so fitting to prove it was so easy to undermine the rebellion that machines could do it. While the chaos continued down on the beach, a dozen retrieval robonoids were sent in through the warp stream with the schematic of the temple downloaded onto their memory banks. They quickly forced the temple door open to reveal the burning room where hundreds of bubbled gems sat ripe for the picking. The retrieval droids then summoned tractor beams to pull in several of the bubbles back to the warp pad where the returned to the scouter in orbit.

To make the whole deal even sweeter, Aquamarine was able to watch the whole process through her monitor as the robonoids recorded every step. The miniature mastermind laughed in glee as gem after gem was lifted into space right under Rose Quartz's nose. In only a few minutes every bubble was recovered and accounted for.

"Mission completed, Aquamarine. The rebels suspect nothing. We are already cataloging all of the gems but have noticed many are flawed or broken. Several dozen will have to be disposed of."

The tiny tyrant could only shrug. It only made sense that someone as dysfunctional and distasteful as Rose would harbor deficient and obsolete gems. Aquamarine was already scanning through the results on the main screen with a look of disgust at the sight of so many imperfections. Her expression changed, however, upon seeing two unfamiliar stones. One was a green pentagon while the other was a reddish-orange circle, but neither rang a bell with her.

"Agate, run these two stones by a database. I'm curious to know what Rose got her hands on."

Her wish was quickly granted as the computer laid out the two were elemental gems once used for terraforming planets but have long since been discontinued due to advances in technology. Aquamarine was now very intrigued and decided to see these two gems in person. Her ship could literally be up there in a flash, so why not? She figured this battle would be over by the time she got back.

And so, literally seconds later, Aquamarine parked her vessel next to the scouting ship and was escorted to one of the few holding cells on board where two bubbled gems waited. The compact commander released them from their prisons and found the two gems oddly humorous.

"Uhh, where are we? What hit me?" groaned Cinnabar as her head still spun from the punch Garnet knocked her out with. Her partner Adamite was, as usual, the one who was up to speed.

"You must be the acting leader of the Homeworld fleet sent to retrieve us. I am the gem who initiated contact with you."

"Ah yes, Blue Diamond did mention you called us through some old-fashioned communicator. Well, congratulations for taking one of those rebels hostage."

"I am deeply regretful in saying we lost custody of Rose Quartz's protégé. We were attacked by a superior opponent who possessed abilities we had no way to counter. We promise we will find a way to accommodate and benefit the Diamonds." Adamite even felt the remnants of Garnet shocking her as she spoke, but Aquamarine began chortling at their effort.

"Oh, I'm sure you will. At least now you two are back where you belong." With a touch of a button, the plasma wall of the cell activated trapping the elemental gems inside. Confusion and panic quickly set in as they were caught completely off guard.

"Hey what gives?! Why are you holding us prisoner?" shouted Cinnabar as she tried banging on the plasma only to get a nasty shock. She then launched columns of flame at it, but to no avail.

"Oh my, you two ARE behind the times, huh? It's quite simple, really. Homeworld has many protocols for how to deal with outdated gems," Aquamarine smirked. For once, Adamite took offense to the comment and tried to summon some earth to attack with only to remember they were on an aerial vessel in the planet's orbit. This made her temple flare up even more.

"'Outdated?!' We are two loyal gems who only seek to serve the greater good of gem society! If you have misconstrued that our extended stay on a foreign planet has corrupted our intentions, you are sorely mistaken. I assure you Cinnabar and I will do everything in our abilities to make our allegiance clear."

The sole gem outside the cell seemed to ponder her words for a moment, but quickly resumed her snide chuckling as if Adamite were oblivious to some obvious joke.

"That's _wonderful,_ but I assure you that your allegiance is irrelevant at this point. You see, we haven't produced any gems like you in ages and we have no need of you since we have technology to terraform planets. To put is shortly, you two are obsolete. The best use you can be to us is being harvested."

Both captive gems seemed disturbed by that last word but were equally unsure about what it meant. Aquamarine rolled her eyes and explained.

"It means once we get back to Homeworld we are going to have you two shattered and broken down to your base components so we can create more actually useful gems for our cause. Now, if that's all cleared up, I need to clean up the last of the resistance and get Rose Quartz. Hey, who knows, maybe you'll be harvested alongside those traitors? You are all relics in some form after all!" And with that disparaging comment, Aquamarine returned to her ship and quickly traveled back to Earth. That left the duo of prisoners to realize one major issue.

They were going to die, and it was entirely their fault.

"Adamite?" choked Cinnabar, for once letting her insecurities through and appearing close to tears.

"Yes, Cinnabar?"

"I want to go back to Earth now." Adamite could only agree as they stared out the viewport showing the planet they sought to leave for millennia suddenly looked appealing.

**And now, we have more elements in the mix (pun intended)! How will Steven and his family fare against the continued onslaught of extraterrestrials? How will Adamite and Cinnabar get out of their current predicament? Will Greg's home insurance cover these damages? Tune in next time! Same gem-story, same gem-website! **

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	24. Enough

**And now, the battle continues!**

The continued battle had taken some unexpected turns as it carried on. The Crystal Gems were forced to fight a war of attrition thanks to their lower numbers and were quickly losing steam as the Homeworld forces never wavered. There was also the major disadvantage that they were not trying to spill any shards, but they all soon dreaded that permanently ending the lives of several Homeworld gems may be the only way they could survive. There only major advantage was the battlefield which, while it was serving them well as it gave them shelter from the opposition's heavy artillery, would only matter so much.

The Crystal Gems decided to take a brief reprieve from the battle by staying within the boundaries of the force field, a fact which greatly upset the assembled invaders. The only exception was Topaz who seemed completely frozen after Steven's heart-to-heart. They shouted and jeered at them as they regained their breath. Peridot, Lapis and Steven in particular were feeling the strain, being the most unfamiliar with war. To make matters worse, Garnet had gone inside the temple on a vision and returned soon after with grave news.

"All of the bubbled gems are gone. Homeworld must have stolen them somehow."

"WHAT?!" shouted Bismuth and Pearl, both knowing that many of those captured gems were fallen comrades from the old days. The others looked more disturbed at how they had managed such a heist without raising any suspicion. That is until Bismuth remembered an earlier event and felt her spirits drop like a stone.

"They sent something through the warp pad. They tried to shut down the force field by sending some peridots in the same way." The blacksmith felt guilt override her as she felt responsible. She told Steven to get back into the fray when she could have told him to stay in and monitor the pad in case they pulled another stunt.

"Wait, how could they just override the warp pad? Is that even possible?" asked Amethyst, hoping that this was all some misunderstanding.

"Take it from someone who spent centuries repairing these, it's very possible. As long as the pad is undamaged and no interference is present in the warp stream, there's nothing stopping Homeworld from sending something else," informed Peridot, who quickly realized the gravity of the situation. The others all looked at the pad, now realizing how it could be a massive liability. Amethyst in particular looked ready to flee as if a bomb could appear at any minute, but Garnet tried to lighten the mood.

"Everyone, relax. We have enough to worry about now without that. Peridot and Bismuth, you two get to work on a way to secure it after this battle is over. We still have Homeworld knocking on our door and we need to prioritize. There's no point working on a hypothetical when there's a definite problem in front of us."

"Garnet's right, as usual," agreed Pearl, "The issue there is we can only hold out for so long. We need to make a climactic move to turn the tide or else we will be overrun."

"What about a fusion? Opal, Sardonyx, even Sugilite could be helpful, right?" suggested Steven, but Garnet quickly shot down the idea.

"That will get Aquamarine's attention and doom us. One flick of her wrist and any fusion we have is incapacitated. Even Alexandrite was no match for her."

"Well then… What about a different fusion? There's seven of us here, maybe some combination will work?" spoke Lapis, much to the surprise of most of the group. As the one who seemed most uncomfortable with the concept a few days ago, it was incredibly bold on her part. Alas that too was shot down, this time by Pearl.

"While that might be the case, now is not the time to gamble. There are dozens of combinations and again it would still raise that little midget's suspicion. She'd just use that wand to freeze us and then who knows what would happen."

Steven put his hand in Lapis' for the thought, but the gesture meant little in the face of the odds. Just as the considered taking more desperate measures, they looked outside and noticed Aquamarine's vessel fly out of sight. While they could only guess why, the others saw this as the perfect opportunity.

"Well, that's convenient," smirked Peridot. The others could not agree more.

Trying to make the most of the opportunity, the three quickly deliberated on the fusions for the situation and ran out to the porch. They were quickly met by a collection of smug looks and taunts from the assembled invaders who were ready to end their mission and return to their everyday duties.

"Hah, what's the matter traitors?" shouted one vocal ruby, "You ready to come back to Homeworld and face your crimes?"

"Get out here and face us, cowards!" quipped a particularly annoyed jasper.

"What, aren't you big enough to accept your loss or do we need to stomp you some more?!" added a cocky amethyst. Pearl had to chuckle at the irony of the last statement.

At that moment the Crystal Gems, save for Bismuth, paired off and began three separate dances. The others assumed they had all lost their minds or were just taunting them until the forms of Pearl and Garnet melded into a single being of light which flew out of the barrier and into a massive four-armed fusion wearing evening attire.

"Oh, well if the audience wants a BIGGER challenge, I will gladly oblige," spoke the eloquent voice of Sardonyx who noticed the now terrified circle of gems around her. Suddenly their number advantage meant nothing in the face of this surreal new opponent. Their terror only grew as Steven and Amethyst fused and joined the fray as well as the jubilant Smoky Quartz.

"Now, Sardonyx, darling, that's not fair! Let's give these guys a fighting chance! I think your stage presence is making them nervous!" The terror among of the enemy gems grew tenfold at the sight of the three-armed fusion. Just as they thought it could not get any worse, Peridot and Lapis Lazuli (using an admittedly rather awkward dance that was a combination of beginner's ballroom dancing and the robot) merged into Turquoise and flew out of the force field on wings of liquid metal.

"You know, from down here you look almost comical. I suppose that happens when your leading officer is moronic enough to leave in the middle of the fight," quipped the flying fusion as the Homeworld horde finally felt their chances at winning hit zero and broke into a panic. Some started wildly swinging at the assembled fusions while others turned tail and ran for the ships.

"Oh come on now, the show is just starting!" chastised Sardonyx as she leaped dozens of feet into the air and summoned her war-hammer midflight, "At least give us a chance before you _ship out_!" She then laughed her signature laugh as she tore through one of the still fighters like it was tissue paper and sent into slamming into the ocean. The pilot, a black and green gem with a single eye, ejected from the cockpit but soon found herself running for her life from the towering fusion that continued to smash the ships with hardly any effort. Before long the entire ground force of the supposed "invasion" was running for the hills.

"Aw, I hope you all have room for more, because I've got an act that will _blow _you away!" cheered Smoky Quartz as she summoned three of her signature battle yo-yos and began creating a massive gust of wind. Try as many of the Homeworld gems might, all of them bowled away from the beach house and forced back to the cliff side by the gust.

"I would concoct some sort of pun for this scenario, but the looks of resignation and anger on your face will be more than entertaining enough," smirked Turquoise as she forced the crashed gem vessels out of the ocean and began melting them down to liquid. As the frightened attackers were pushed all the way back into the rock upon seeing an enormous blob of liquid metal, Turquoise soon shaped all of it into a massive prison cell using the cliff as the rear wall. The few gems who tried to run were quickly smacked back in line by Smoky Quartz with a yo-yo to the face. In only seconds approximately sixty gems were trapped in a forty-food long cell made of their own reconfigured aircraft. Sardonyx applauded at the sight.

"My, my, what an incredible display! I believe that concludes our performance today, unless the audience has any requests?"

"Let us out, you bunch of disgusting freaks! When Homeworld hears of this, you're all as good as shattered!" shouted a particularly testy jasper.

"Hm, that _is_ a valid point," admitted the tuxedo-clad fusion, "Thankfully I have the perfect new display to leave you all speechless!"

She then held out her two right hands and released a massive blast of ice which soon enveloped the shell. The panicked screams of the enemy gems were quickly silenced as they were all frozen solid and ready to be bubbled later. After a brief marveling of her handiwork, Sardonyx bid everyone adieu and returned to Pearl and Garnet. Smoky Quartz and Turquoise soon followed leaving the seven Crystal Gems in a state of shock as they contemplated they had actually won the battle.

* * *

Aquamarine and the agate in charge of Satellite Scouter XL4 picked both the best and worst time to check on the battle down on Earth's surface. What was supposed to be a simple retrieval that perhaps involved a light skirmish had turned into a humiliating defeat. By a bunch of gems performing such loathsome, vile fusions that it made the two sick to their cores. They watched as the group broke into an impromptu celebration, cheering and hugging each other on the beach. That was the last straw for Aquamarine who felt her rage boil over and screamed so loudly the agate next to her felt her ears ringing.

"THAT TEARS IT! Send in all our fighters, call for backup, get one of the Diamonds down here! I don't care what it takes, that Rose Quartz will. Be. SHATTERED! Get a line to Homeworld double time while I try to fix this mess!"

"A-At once, Aquamarine," responded the larger gem, fearing for her safety. Just before she could get the transmission started, though, the boom of an explosion shocked them.

"What in the cosmos was that?!" asked Aquamarine, wondering how this situation could get any worse.

"Our scanners detect nothing, but it could have been an enemy fighter firing at us." Her answer came soon as one of the gem fighters exploded suddenly and the two caught a glimpse of yellow blur speeding by.

"Correction, it _is _an enemy fighter. One of gem construction, but most likely commandeered by the rebels."

That news brought the petite captain to a new level of infuriated. Those clods actually had advanced weaponry?! This just got better and better. The situation continued to grow direr as two fighters were given the order to break formation and shoot down the rogue aircraft. They were almost instantly outmaneuvered and blasted into smithereens.

"You have got to be kidding me!" shouted Aquamarine as she watched more fighters try to intercept the enemy vessel before it could attack the scout ship. Alas, as she watched two more ships get laser-blasted into oblivion she quickly decided a retreat was in order.

"Get yourself and all these gems back to Homeworld for harvesting. Tell the fighters to immediately attack the rebels on Earth. That ought to throw off that ship of theirs and wipe out Rose's insufferable drones in one swoop."

The head agate soon relayed the order for all the independent fighters to immediately break formation and descend on Earth. Aquamarine flew at top speed, which honestly was not much due to her tiny wingspan, but soon found the ship rumbling as the unknown ship continued firing on them.

As she passed by the cell containing the despondent Adamite and Cinnabar, she felt a small lump of joy emerge as she stared at the duo too lost in their despair to notice the barrage hitting them.

"Well, it looks like you two outdated freaks don't have to worry about being harvested anymore. You'll get blown up instead! Hah!" Adamite was not amused by this comment.

"If I had access to any form of rock, I would gladly bury you in enough rubble to suffocate your insufferable voice. And then I'd let you be Cinnabar's plaything once someone unearthed you." The fiery gem only grinned for a second before returning to her hopelessness. The sneer on Aquamarine's face grew larger.

"Well it's a shame that you're stuck in there. Because as long as that plasma wall holds, you are completely helpless-"

Apparently fate had it in for the squat commander as the onslaught by the hostile fighter necessitated the agate in charge to reroute power from all supplementary systems to bolster the shields long enough for their nova thrusters to reach light speed and escape. One of those systems was the holding cells.

Adamite and Cinnabar stared at the flying nuisance for a brief second in shock before the former slammed her against the wall with her burly fist and the latter gleefully ran down the hall leaving a smoke trail behind her.

"Where's an escape pod?" uttered through her clenched teeth.

"Why should I tell you? There's no rock to control here," spat Aquamarine, but regretted that as Adamite's other hand gripped her head and applied a disturbing amount of force.

"Because if you refuse to tell me, I'll let Cinnabar torch every gem aboard this ship. I'm the only one who can control her impulses, and if that is not enough motivation, I could also crush you in an instant. You are a pathetic, sniveling, waste of resources and I sincerely doubt even your own subordinates will miss you. Now answer my question before I grind you to pieces and my partner starts demolishing this ship."

As much as she tried, Aquamarine could not find a way to wriggle out of her grip or reach her wand and reluctantly confessed that the escape pods were on the left starboard side of the craft. Adamite delivered a crushing punch to the sneering gem's body for good measure before running off. She spent several seconds on the floor as the laser fire from the invading ship continue outside and one of the escape pods being launched. For once being silent, she returned to her own ship and made a beeline for the rebel base.

* * *

"Man, I've gotta try fusion sometime," remarked Bismuth as the group basked in their hard-earned victory. All seven of them were resting on the beach after such an intense fight and relished the quiet after an unending barrage that took up their afternoon. A few of them honestly could not believe they had come out unscathed, but all of them were thanking their lucky stars and appreciating every moment of training. Steven, however, caught sight of Topaz who still in the same spot at the foot of the stairs outside the force field. The others were wary, but figured she would have attacked by now if she were hostile.

"So, what's your decision?" asked the boy, much to the confusion of the others. He then explained his encounter with the fusion during his unwanted jaunt to Homeworld weeks ago, and how she was desperate for sanctuary from the grasp of the Diamonds. The others were all touched, especially Garnet once she heard about how Homeworld used their relationship as leverage to force obedience.

The others all looked at the stocky yellow fusion with kinder eyes than Topaz had ever seen and realized she had truly found a new home.

"You… really mean it? We can stay and be together here?" spoke the fusion for the first time since her arrival on Earth. While a few were taken aback at her high voice, they all smiled in support.

Steven reached out his hand. "Of course. If Homeworld won't recognize how special you are, we will. Welcome to the Crystal Gems."

Before the yellow fusion could accept the offer, however, Aquamarine's ship came roaring into view followed by several combat fighters. The tender moment was quickly brought to an end as the group realized that the miniscule captain had brought backup.

"Everyone inside!" commanded Garnet as laser fire bombarded the beach, apparently ignoring that one of their own was still in the line of fire. Topaz run inside with the rest, only to ram into the barrier and was forced to duck under the fire as Aquamarine and over a dozen maddened troops ran out carrying portable destabilizers.

"Rose Quartz, this ends NOW!" shrieked Aquamarine, "You and all your traitors either exit your base and come quietly or we'll open fire! That shield's going to fall eventually!"

As she ranted and raved at the Crystal Gems standing on the patio under the protection of the pink force field, she caught sight of Topaz and her anger intensified.

"And as for you, you useless sack of minerals, I'll have you court martialed! You've been a complete failure on this mission, both of you! I hope one of you ends up shattered and the other is forced to watch for your incompetence!"

"Hey! Don't yell at her!" shouted Steven, his temper flaring at the flagrant verbal abuse.

"Oh, you think you can corrupt her just like the rest of your pitiful little band? Well why don't you stop hiding and prove it?"

"Steven, don't let her bait you!" reminded Pearl as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, that's hilarious! The _pearl _giving advice on anything besides how to hold open a door! What next, is she going to sing into submission?!" Pearl then had Garnet place a hand on her shoulder as the slender gem felt her urge to kill rising.

"You're all even dumber than I thought if you honestly think you could survive this! Even if you beat us, we have millions of gems ready to tear you apart! Heck, we might even just blow up the whole planet and be done with the lot of you! Now come out here willingly or we'll start testing how much laser fire that little shield of yours can withstand!"

The stress in the air was palpable between the two sides as the Crystal Gems were once again outnumbered, though less so this time, but now the forces were armed with weapons that would render them inert with a single hit. And now they actively had heavy-duty weapons pointed at them and Aquamarine's full attention. If that accursed wand could stop Alexandrite dead in her tracks, what chance did they have split up? In the end, however, they knew this was an uphill battle. They considered their earlier victory a miracle by every meaning of the word and they all agreed they would go down fighting if worst came to worst.

No one knew exactly how long their standoff was, but it ended abruptly as Aquamarine undid the bow in her hair and formed her dreaded gravity wand. The Crystal Gems and even some of her own troops raised their eyebrows at this since they had no idea how it would affect a force field, but the answer to that question never came. Instead a blue beam of light shot out and ensnared Topaz. The stocky fusion was immediately rendered immobile and was forcefully lifted several stories in the air.

"Hey, what are you doing?! She's one of your own!" shouted Steven, outrage and shock overwhelming his sense of reason.

"Well, since you seem to be so partial to her, and she clearly needs a lesson in discipline, this solves both problems. Now either you come out or I drag this traitor back to the ship and have her arrested for fraternizing with an enemy of the Diamonds."

Steven and his family were disgusted. They knew Aquamarine was callous, but this was a new level of deplorable. The jaspers and amethysts surrounding the tiny tyrant remained impassive and brandished their destabilizers. They all knew this was a trap.

But that did not stop Steven from charging headfirst with his shield in one hand and a spear in the other, his patience gone and itching for a fight for the first time in his life.

**You know, as much as I still despite Aquamarine, I really enjoy writing her. It's like an exercise of how despicable I can make a character before the audience starts cheering when something goes wrong for her. Anyhow, next time is the dramatic conclusion!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	25. Consequences

**Previously on How It Will End: Aquamarine ruined everything!**  
**And now the thrilling conclusion!**

Steven was finding out more and more that wearing his heart on his sleeves had a handful of disadvantages. It made him very vulnerable to these types of situations and he could not help but remember how he was forced to cooperate with Adamite's demands thanks to her holding Greg hostage. He knew deep down he would have to correct this or one day it would be his undoing.

At this exact moment, however, he was more concerned with barreling straight for Aquamarine, still holding her own subordinate hostage high above her head in with her wand, his desire for a peaceful solution gone. He barely noticed the small brigade of enemy gems standing between him and his enemy.

The other six Crystal Gems had no choice but to follow him into the fray lest he end up in Homeworld's clothes. Although the fight may have been more even in numbers, now their opponents were all equipped with weapons that would destroy their forms with a single hit. The odds were still against them, but when has that ever stopped them?

The two sides met in a frenzy as the assembled amethysts and jaspers tried to force their rebellious enemies back into their cores, only to be met with surprising resistance. This was most especially the case with Steven as he stormed right through any unfortunate gem who got too close. Several unfortunate gems found themselves being swatted away by his shield and sent soaring by his strength. Others were impaled by his spear and forced into their gems themselves. Had any of them been paying specific attention, however, they may have noticed that the destabilizers were barely fazing him. Instead of being poofed into nothingness, all he got was a mildly uncomfortable shock that only agitated him further.

He eventually broke through the line and came face-to-face with a still-smirking Aquamarine. Above her Topaz could only look down and silently pray this debacle would end without her being ripped apart.

"Put her down NOW!" shouted Steven. The petite commander was very amused by his anger.

"Oh really now Rose, you could at least say please," she chided, "Proper etiquette is a valuable skill. Maybe when you put in front of the Diamonds this time, they'll lighten your punishment if you act nicely!"

"I'm not going on trial again. I got out of there once, and I'll do it again. Just put Topaz down before I have to hurt you." He summoned a pair of gauntlets to emphasize his point, but that still did not worry the pint-sized commander.

"Really? Then maybe you'll be more cooperative with some incentive," as she spoke, several of the gem fighters that arrived with Aquamarine turned towards the incapacitated gem above her. The front points of the vessels began to glow as their laser cannons were primed. Both Steven and Topaz realized the situation and began to panic.

"You can't do that! She's your personal bodyguard, or partner, or something important! Homeworld won't let you get away with that!" faltered Steven as the fury he just had vanished. Topaz actually began to breathe sporadically above them, not that Aquamarine could hear it over how hard she was rolling her eyes at Steven's unwilling naiveté.

"Wow, you really ARE dense. Topaz is as disposable as almost any other gem. All it would take is a quick explanation that it was a necessary bargaining tactic and it will fly through the system without any gem raising an eye. Getting a new pair of topazes should take no effort. If you place some sort of special precedence to these two, you are as random as you are foolish. Now hand yourself over or else she becomes target practice."

All throughout her little spiel, Steven tried to find the words to convince her this was wrong. So wrong he could feel bile rising in his throat from the sheer audacity of it all, but nothing came. He could tell she was not bluffing. He could just barely hear Topaz having a panic attack at the horror of this. He could not even shed a tear since he was so consumed by paralyzing fear. For a brief instant, he contemplated surrender. If would mean Topaz's safety after all, but then he saw a glimmer of light above him. As he and several of the gems fighting behind him did the same, Aquamarine was not pleased with the distraction.

"What are you clods all staring at?! If you don't surrender this instant, I'll have Topaz blasted to nothingness!"

It was only then that she saw the cause of the diversion: a single escape pod hurtling towards the cliff above the temple at a ludicrous speed. It just barely missed the lighthouse and landed with an enormous quake that briefly brought silence to the raging conflict.

The collective question of "What the heck was that?!" seemed to occupy everyone. No one made a move, not even Aquamarine. They could not hear if anything was in the pod, but they could almost make out two figures now looking over the cliff onto the assembled gems below.

The unknown pair soon vanished from sight and both sides began to resume the fight. Before much could occur, however, a slight rumble from the massive rock face caught them by surprise. That sense of surprise grew to full-blown stupefaction when a burly green gem burst through the cliff as if it was paper several stories up and land without even flinching. On her back was a slightly slimmer scarlet gem who seemed shaken by the ride, but had a large grin showing she was having more fun than she has had in years. Steven, his attention finally leaving Aquamarine, looked utterly flabbergasted.

"Adamite?! Cinnabar?! What are you two doing here?" he shouted. Many of the others were curious as well, but the two in question seemed unusually at ease.

"We were abducted from your base by this unbearable nuisance and held captive aboard a ship in orbit. We escaped thanks to an ally of yours with superior firepower and have decided to return here."

"Hi Steven!" waved Cinnabar, "We got to steal an escape pod and then rode down a cliff! And now we can help you!"

"Help us?" asked Lapis, "I thought you wanted to assist the greatness of Homeworld or some junk like that."

"It appears your assessment of Homeworld was correct," responded Adamite with a twinge of regret in her voice, "They have become unscrupulous and consumed by hubris and illogical hatred. They sentenced the two of us for 'harvesting' for simply being outdated. I apologize for forgoing your advice, Lapis, and we have made a decision to permanently defect from Homeworld."

"Oh, so now you two are traitors, huh?!" shouted a very indignant Aquamarine, "Well fine then, we were about to drag the rest of Rose's rebellion back for shattering. By all means, go off to your certain demise with the rest of them!"

With that cue two jaspers began charging towards them with destabilizers in hand, bearing down on them with sinister grins on their faces. That expression changed once they were launched fifty feet into the air by pillars of stone and soon were shot back down by fireballs as large as they were. The Crystal Gems, while a tad wary of the two thanks to their past actions, were grateful for the assistance and found their second wind.

Pearl began nimbly dancing around her larger opponents and knocking the wind out of them with precise spear strikes. Peridot got her hands on one of the destabilizers and poofed several gems who lost sight of her thanks to her short stature. Garnet joined Cinnabar in burning many of the invaders until they receded into their cores. Amethyst and Bismuth teamed up and overwhelmed many gems with an unpredictable mix of melee styles. That left Lapis and Adamite swarming the battlefield with their respective elements. Many gems were suddenly cocooned in rock up to their necks or swept out to sea and then flopped back onto the sand by a malevolent wave. Despite the former having no memory of the two being partners, Lapis finally began to believe that they once knew each other thanks to the remarkable synergy they possessed.

While the battle raged on behind him, Steven returned his attention to Aquamarine who was still holding Topaz aloft under the focus of several gem fighters. The young hybrid feared making a single move for fear that Aquamarine would make the fatal command. Even still, his anger bubbled beneath the surface and he kept his gauntlets out and ready to pummel the tiny tyrant into submission.

"This has gone on too long. Put Topaz down before the rest of your gems fall and then the rest of the Crystal Gems will be after you." All the compassion and tenderness he usually spoke with was gone. Aquamarine merely laughed off his suggestion.

"Really? You think you're still in control of this situation?! All the years on this planet must have made you even more delusional than you already were, Rose Quartz! Even if you defeated my fleet, we'd just send even more! We have _billions_ of troops besides me that would all gladly hand you to the Diamonds. We have an empire spanning _galaxies _that has grown unimpeded for eons. All you have is a microscopic group of members and a single vessel to your name. You have no chance of surviving the onslaught that will ensue is you keep putting up this defiance. Now, I will give you one _final _chance to surrender yourself and your fellow criminals to the mercy of the Diamond Authority or else you will all perish here and now."

Steven could only stare back at the gem. The smirk on her face had begun to irritate him more than anything else in his life. It even made Kevin seem tolerable by comparison. As he processed her speech, however, he actually found it humorous and began to chuckle.

"You know, you really need to stop jumping to conclusions. We may be small, but we've stood on our own for a long time. We're not looking to overthrow the entire gem empire. All we want is to be left alone and if you all can't accept that, then we will fight back. It may not be our first choice of solving problems, but we'll do what we have to if it means protecting this planet and each other. Now you can either leave with all your gems in tow, or this fight goes on and we win. Your choice."

The tiny commander gave the most overblown grimace Steven had ever seen upon hearing his retort. Any semblance of mercy or restraint from her was gone as she looked up to the imprisoned Topaz and felt all sense of reason vanish. All she wanted now was seeing Rose Quartz suffer. And she knew just how to start.

"Fighters! Ready all cannons on Topaz and open fire!"

The weapons began to glow with an eerie green light as the point of each of the eight ships turned their attention towards the stocky yellow fusion. Trapped with no way out and certain death, she was only one step away from blacking out under the stress. Before the firing line could blast her to kingdom come, however, a yellow spaceship came roaring down from the heavens and began obliterating each of the ships before they could even turn around to face their new opponent. Within seconds all eight of them were in shambles with the few pilots fortunate enough to survive the surprise attack running for their lives. Aquamarine was also caught up in the commotion as the shockwaves from the explosions knocked her off her feet and the wand out of her grasp. This finally freed Topaz from her confinement as she plummeted towards the ground. She could barely process what was happening but recognized that her life was saved. She began to run towards the cliff side away from the commotion of the ongoing battle. Steven, however, did not move an inch and simply smiled as the mysterious spaceship flew overhead before flying out of sight.

"Also, you should learn to look behind you," quipped Steven as Aquamarine was now left with her face in the sand.

The petite chief looked up with unbridled hatred and realized, as much as she loathed to admit it, she had thoroughly lost every advantage. She could already see Topaz running for her life and as she looked at was her fleet, all of them were totaled. Even her own ship had not been spared and was now a flaming wreck that could not even get off the ground much less return to Homeworld. She could see that the remaining troops they had were already dwindling and some were already trapped in bubbles. She could only guess how many of her troops were obliterated in the ambush.

"How…" was the only word that escaped her lips as her eyes tried to burn through Steven, "How did you get a ship that advanced?"

"I have no idea who that was, but you made it sound like someone gave you trouble in space. We don't know who's flying that, but it still helped us in the end. Even if this time was luck, though, we will keep the Earth safe. Now you can't leave the planet, but we will let the rest of your friends go."

Aquamarine literally trembled in malice as she stood up and glared at her adversary. Steven did not flinch as he merely stared back at her. Eventually their contest ended when the former looked down and seemed to start sobbing. Everyone present, even the other Homeworld gems, looked shocked as their smart-mouther leader seemed to be crying in defeat.

"Y-You're right… We've lost this," she stammered as she tried to hold her composure, "I-I suppose we'll have to wait until Homeworld sends a rescue convoy for me. W-W-We'll just go our own way and stay out of trouble." She then silently reached down for her wand and looked at it for several seconds with the same teary expression. Steven almost felt sorry for her, seeing her this dejected, only for his sympathy to vanish as she pointed her wand at him and fired the gravity beam at him. He barely summoned a bubble around himself in a panic, but still found himself trapped in a blue dome around his pink one.

"STEVEN!" shouted all of the Crystal Gems, horrified that the puny tyrant had him in her grasp. Pearl immediately ran forward to help him, but found two jaspers blocking her path. Before she could retaliate, one of them landed the destabilizer hit and forced her into her spherical white stone.

"Pearl, no!" shouted Steven in horror. Aquamarine let out a wicked laugh at his plight.

"Aw, what's the matter, Rose? You don't want your disfigured friends in trouble? Too bad! Zap all of them!"

With that command, the remaining amethysts and jaspers all sprung on the now thoroughly shaken Crystal Gems. Playing off the panic that Pearl's sudden poofing, Bismuth was caught guard by a gem behind her. Amethyst tried booking it back towards the temple but was tackled by multiple jaspers and zapped for her troubles. Peridot tried fending off as many as she could with her own pilfered destabilizer, but an enemy amethyst ripped it out of her hand and shocked her into her stone. Lapis, Adamite and Cinnabar immediately tried to turn the battle to their favor but found themselves overwhelmed as almost a dozen gems dogpiled on top of them. When the cluster of gems separated, all three were poofed as well. Garnet was the last to fall as she tried fending off about twenty gems by herself. Even with her future vision, however, she was bound to miss something. All of them rushed her at once and bludgeoned her into submission before electrocuting her down to her two base stones.

"STOP! PLEASE DON'T HURT THEM!" wailed Steven as he watched all of the gems he loved being defeated. Again, his misfortune seemed to be wonderful entertainment to Aquamarine as she had the now helpless gems lined up right outside of his bubble. One of the jaspers pulled out her flat-bladed sword and menacingly pointed at the stones in front of him. It took only a second to realize the intent and it made him sweat more than he ever had in his life.

"AQUAMARINE, STOP IT! LET THEM GO! IT'S ME YOU WANT!" He looked over to the smirking gem holding him captive and quickly saw his pleas falling on deaf ears. She ogled the gemstones as casually as someone window shopping at a boutique with the most pleasant expression on her face.

"Hm, which one should get shattered first? That abominable fusion seems tempting, but then there's that defective runt. Or what about that foolish pearl? Or those three outdated gems that should all be extinct? I simply can't decide, Rose! How about you pick which one should get obliterated! It can be the last free choice you make before Homeworld picks you up to be brought into court."

Steven could barely hear what she was saying, but what he picked up made him go to pieces. He tried to think as he choked and sobbed, grabbing his hair in stress. He was completely unaware of Aquamarine's troops making suggestions on who should die first. As he fell onto his knees in his frenzy, he felt his entire world collapse. In his depression, the bubble around him fell. He waited for the awful moment to come when Aquamarine would order for the first execution…

But it never came. Everyone involved, even the short commander herself, were busy staring at him because he was free. The gravity wand was not restraining him anymore. It took Steven finally looking up to notice their baffled expression for this new information to sink in. Once it clicked, however, his sorrow disappeared and his rage from earlier returned with a vengeance.

In the blink of an eye he summoned his spear and stabbed the jasper still looming over the poofed Crystal Gems through the neck. She was poofed instantly and bubbled by Steven only a second later. He charged forward with unheard of speed and began wailing on every gem he could find. Some tried to retaliate with weapons, but they were all parried by his shield in one hand whatever weapon he wielded in the other. He seamlessly flowed between whip, gauntlet and spear, cycling between them with barely a thought. He remained completely silent as he moved from one hapless gem to the next, cutting them down or beating them into surrender. Even when one particularly sensible jasper put down her weapon and tried to offer herself to him, Steven did not relent. He simply speared her through the torso and bubbled her like all the rest. Before long there were only four gems left, two of each kind, and tried to rush him in a desperate final move. Steven simply summoned another bubble to knock them all away once they got within hitting range. Once they were a scattered Steven went to work putting them down one by one. One amethyst was literally choked into her gem by his whip. The other was held by her hair and punched repeatedly in the face until she poofed. The first of the jaspers was held down by Steven's foot on her neck and stabbed in the face with his spear. Her fellow orange bruiser, the apparent last gem standing in her unit, left to be wailed on by Steven wearing both of his gauntlets. He sent blow after merciless blow into every point of her form until he finally knocked her into her gem with a savage punch to the face.

Aquamarine, having just witnessed the massacre in front of her, learned two very disturbing things. One of them was a crucial flaw of the seemingly foolproof gravity wand. The wand essentially created a hold on an object by completely encircling its surface area and then trapping it in a field of no gravity that could be moved and manipulated by the wielder of the wand. Steven's bubble, in turn, showed that flaw by completely covering him and thus becoming the actual target of the wand's artificial gravity. And once the bubble was dispersed, the wand's hold went with it. The other thing she learned, while less complex, was equally chilling.

Aquamarine learned what fear felt like.

Her hands were shaking, her eyes were as wide as possible, and she even began to perspire as Steven bubbled the last gem and silently turned towards her. She saw how his face was a mask of barely contained fury that was now glaring at her. In her desperation, another new feeling she discovered that day, she tried trapping Steven in another gravity trap. The fuming hybrid merely summoned another bubble and dispersed it a second after it was caught instead of him. He began slowly walking towards her, each step heightening her growing hysteria.

In her panic, she completely forgot about the wand's design flaw and tried trapping him over and over again. Each time Steven summoned a bubble to get caught in the artificial gravity in place of him and dispersed them without ever breaking his pace. He did it purely on instinct, his desire to finally end this madness pushing him forward. At long last he was only a few paces away from the truly terrified Aquamarine, looking up at him and realizing for the first time how tiny she physically was. She futilely stuck her arm out to try trapping him again, but Steven simply grasped her arm.

"Drop it. _Now._" His words held no argument. She, perhaps for the first time since her first moments of creation, had no comeback and complied. With the weapon laying harmlessly in the sand, Steven proceeded to grip her arm tighter. She squeaked in pain as she swore her arm was trapped under a docked spaceship and quaked even harder. Her pain grew even worse as Steven closed his other hand around her throat and began throttling. Even though he was silent once again, she could feel every ounce of vitriol as her head swam and her breath was constricted. As she glanced for something, anything that could help her, she caught sight of a motionless yellow figure staring at her.

"To…paz…" she choked in desperation. Much to her relief, caught Steven's attention as he turned to find Topaz gawking at the pair. Unbeknownst to either of them, the fusion had witnessed everything after her release from her malevolent superior. The Crystal Gem's attempted execution, Steven defeating the entire force by himself and now her boss being strangled. Her presence also brought Steven back to his senses as he suddenly felt very drained physically and emotionally. In his daze, he unintentionally dropped Aquamarine right in front of her gravity wand. She then wasted no time firing at Steven and, with his attention elsewhere, successfully captured him in a bubble of suspended gravity.

Combining the sheer panic she felt only moments ago with the satisfaction of accomplishing her goal at long last, the tiny tyrant started laughing hysterically for several minutes as Topaz looked on in horror and Steven could only frantically try willing another bubble to protect him. Alas now that he was caught there was no escape and Aquamarine finally faced her yellow subordinate with that same sneer she used to boss her around.

"Well, it looks like this insidious mission is finally over, Rose! Even after all that, you lose and your team is doomed! Topaz, go collect the fallen rebels!" Still shocked from Steven's time as a one-man battalion, the yellow fusion just stood in place until Aquamarine shouted at her.

"Hey, Topaz, you insufferable waste of space! Get whatever's left of your heads unfused and do your job! You're already looking at getting put on probation for your shoddy performance today, do I need to have you two separated to get the point across?!"

With that threat, though, Topaz indeed got moving. She slowly plodded over to the nine lifeless stones that contained the essence of the Crystal Gems. One by one she plucked them from the sand and then brought all of them in front of Steven, once again thoroughly horrified by the sight of his family on the chopping block.

"Now Topaz, is you want to keep your job and yourself intact, I suggest you start by shattering these gems one by one."

The fusion in question summoned her pugil stick and closed her eyes. Steven and Aquamarine waited for her to make the first move, but nothing came as she stood there seemingly frozen in with her weapon idly in her fingers. Aquamarine, having already lost all her patience, did not take this well.

"Is this some kind of joke, Topaz?! Have you been damaged, or should I say more damaged than you already were, you worthless clod?! Stop standing there and start swinging!"

That got Topaz to open her eyes, showing an unusual amount of anger given her stoic nature. She then took several steps back, apparently getting a running start to build momentum. She charged with impressive speed considering her bulk…

And sped right past the dormant Crystal Gems. Before Aquamarine could give her subordinate another tongue-lashing, though, she was hit full tilt in the face by Topaz. In her stumbling she dropped the wand once again and let Steven go.

"What the-?!" was all the petite flyer could manage before Topaz barreled down on her with a look of pure, unrestrained hatred on her face. Without any hesitation she raised her stick and began bashing her boss over and over again. With each blow she screamed all the thoughts she had been keeping inside for ages.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, YOU AWFUL LITTLE MIDGET! I HATE YOU! I DESPISE YOU! I HATE EVERYTHING YOU'VE MADE ME DO! I HATE HOW SMUG YOU ARE! I CAN'T STAND HOW YOU TREAT MY LOVE AS A TOOL TO MAKE ME YOUR SLAVE! WE BOTH HATE YOU! WE HATE HOMEWORLD! AND ROSE HAS TREATED US BETTER THAN YOU EVER HAVE! WE QUIT! WE'RE DONE! WE'RE STAYING HERE! AND YOU CAN GO BACK TO HOMEWORLD AS THE FAILURE YOU ARE, YOU PIECE OF SCHIST!"

By the time she was done her rant, Topaz was breathing harder than she ever had in her life. Steven was speechless and, while proud of her taking her freedom after so much suffering, was still unnerved by the sheer brutality of it. He was still in far better shape than Aquamarine, though, as she was barely conscious and was amazed at how her gemstone was not cracked thanks to repeated blows to the face. Her entire form was throbbing in agony and she barely managed to look up at her now-former minion.

"So, it's finally come to this," she remarked, "You're going to throw away everything you had for some lousy rebellion just because one of them was nice to you? How pathetic. How do you know the others will accept you?"

"They will," assured Steven, "I know they'll treat her the same as everyone else. That's what the Crystal Gems are all about - accepting any gem who wants something different with her life. Earth can be a peaceful place where they don't have to live by your rules.'"

"Heh, you're one to talk about peace, Rose," snarked Aquamarine as she got back on her feet, "You started the only civil war in our history. Thousands of shattered gems on both sides and you're going to lecture me about peace?! You're a hypocrite and a traitor to boot."

"She's still better than you," growled Topaz as she hoisted the smaller gem by her torso and clutched her in hands.

"Topaz, I won't ever forgive you for this," swore the tinier gem, "When Homeworld hears about this, both of you are as good as shattered. Do you understand that?"

"I do," she briefly looked down at her feet, as if she was about to relent her hold on her. Aquamarine smirked internally at talking her way out of another scrape, only to find Topaz's hand squeezing her harder than ever.

"Then I guess Homeworld's not hearing from you ever again."

As she spoke through clenched teeth, she strangled Aquamarine's entire body with both hands. Only her head was free and even that felt like it was being pushed together by two boulders. Her vision began to swim as every fiber of her cried in pain. She begged Topaz to stop using every plead and command she could think of, but the fusion was finally done with her.

Steven was suitably shocked by the display but could not look away. All the adrenaline from the battle had left him leaving him weary and grateful for this whole ordeal to finally be over. Aquamarine, however, said something that caught his ear.

"Rose… I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry…I promise…If you help me, I'll…Leave and never bother you…" she wheezed as Topaz continued her agonizing compressing.

Steven looked at her, more desperate and afraid than she has been in her entire life. Topaz still kept her eyes on her, glaring into her and wishing she would pop already. He knew he wanted to believe her, he wanted to think there was some good in her. As he recalled everything she has done since her arrival, though, a freezing chill overcame him. He unconsciously began to cry.

"No, you're not. You're lying."

"Wha-? But…I said-"

"If you meant that, you would have flown away when I dropped you. You kept on trying to attack me and my friends. I'm sorry, Aquamarine. I can't help you. I want to, but you won't let me. You have to go."

Seeing her last hope was gone, Aquamarine gave one last terrified shriek as Topaz finally forced her into her gem. She looked down at the tiny teardrop, so unassuming on its own. Topaz then pulled out her pugil stick and looked down at the stone, but not before looking at the still sobbing Steven. He spent what felt like eternity staring at the fallen gem, wrestling with himself that there was some way, any way, to redeem her, but nothing came. He finally looked up at Topaz and nodded his head. She silently brought down the point of her weapon and shattered Aquamarine. The Battle for the Temple was finally over.

**And now, let us mourn the loss of such an iconic character in song. "Ding-Dong, the witch is dead..."**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review!**


	26. White Light

**And now for the consequences I built up so much last time! Yay, payoff!**

When the rest of the Crystal Gems reformed, they awoke to the last sight they could have imagined; Steven and Topaz politely talking on the beach with seemingly no sign of the massive battle that had just taken place save for a cage full of frozen Homeworld troops still stuck by the cliff and numerous gem destabilizers laying all around them.

"Hey guys!" he greeted the resurrected gems as they bafflingly stared at Topaz who was doing her best to look embarrassed and nonthreatening despite her hulking stature.

"Steven, what happened? Where's Aquamarine?" inquired Pearl as she placed her hands on his shoulders. The boy merely glanced over to the spot where the shards of the former gem commander rested on the sand. The others, even the likes of Garnet and Adamite, looked stunned.

"Well…I guess that ends that," shrugged Lapis, having no idea what to say. They could already tell Topaz was the one responsible, but the whole ordeal still left them drained. Peridot simply went inside and shut off the force field and soon all of the Crystal Gems save for Topaz, who continued to twiddle her thumbs on the beach, as well as Adamite and Cinnabar filed into the beach house.

What felt like hours to Steven passed as he recollected everything that happened after Aquamarine's surprise attack left all of them poofed. He could hardly make out any fine details, but he remembered beating every single gem by himself. Somehow he took down a small platoon of around twenty soldiers singlehandedly. Amethyst, naturally, was the first to give her thoughts.

"That. Was. FREAKING AWESOME!" She proceeded to tackle-hug him in her exuberance. The others soon followed.

"I knew you packed a punch, but not that much!" boasted Bismuth as she ruffled his hair.

"You showed those ruddy muddy clods whose boss!" cheered Peridot.

Pearl could only look on, clearly trying to hold back tears though if they listened closely they could hear her saying how proud his mother would be. Lapis also hugged him, jokingly adding how he saved her again. The only one not getting into the celebration, however, was Steven himself as he felt oddly uncomfortable. Garnet, observant as usual, walked up to him last and rested her hands on his shoulder.

"Steven, I want you to know this is not something you should be ashamed of. You tried talking, but you knew that wasn't working. You did what you had to, and I am so proud of you for it. You really aren't that silly little boy who would beg to get brought along to missions anymore. You're a real Crystal Gem who fought to save his home and his family. Never forget that today you were a hero. Sometimes the hero has to get violent, but that doesn't change that you did it for a great cause."

Steven was left literally starry-eyed by her words and finally put on a smile as he felt relief, warmth and a twinge of satisfaction out of his job well-done. Finding his old jubilance again, he walked outside to find the other three gems sitting outside on the beach. Cinnabar was entertaining herself by passing a fireball between her fingers, Adamite was simply staring at the ocean and Topaz seemed lost on what to do her with freedom as she was just awkwardly poking the sand.

"Hey!" he greeted from the porch, "Aren't you going to come in?"

Adamite looked back, a touch surprised at his openness. "Are you not worried about us in your dwelling after our altercation? We caused severe damage to your base."

"But it's all fixed now!" he rebutted, "Besides, you two really helped us back there. As far as I'm concerned, that's enough to make you Crystal Gems too!"

Cinnabar happily stood up and ran straight up the stars, leaving a literal trail of smoke in her wake. Topaz, although relieved, still seemed apprehensive as she followed behind the scarlet arsonist. Adamite stayed right where she was and simply stared at him, wondering how he could trust her so plainly. Then she merely closed her eyes and gave a rare smile.

"It seems you really are full of surprises."

She then made her way indoors where she already found her comrade of so many years chatting with Lapis by the fire pit.

Eventually the new Crystal Gems, now sitting at nine members strong, all gathered together to celebrate their victory over Homeworld. Steven brought out juice boxes with his usual playfulness even though no one in their party outside of him needed liquids. Nevertheless, Cinnabar tried drinking for herself and seemed to enjoy which greatly pleased Amethyst.

"Great, finally someone I can chow down with," remarked the purple scrapper, "I can stop trying to convince Pearl after all this time."

"Excuse me if I find the act of putting foreign substances in my body uncomfortable," refuted the gem in question, "I would rather pass the time with something more engaging like laundry or crossword puzzles."

"Boy, and I thought Peri and I could get dull," joked Lapis, much to the amusement of Amethyst and Bismuth. The slender gem merely pouted, but their merriment was broken up by Adamite.

"While it is fascinating to observe your… unique relationships, there is still a serious quandary weighing on my mind; who was aboard that fighter that attacked the enemy fleet in orbit?"

"No clue," responded Bismuth, "But I sure am glad for their help. We'd probably be rubble if it weren't for them."

"I suppose you make a logical point. Since they were an asset in your skirmish, perhaps their identity is irrelevant."

"I wouldn't say that," suggested Garnet, causing many eyebrows to be raised in response.

"What, do you have some grand prediction of who they are? Are they going to save us from certain shattering again?" jested Peridot with her usual swagger, only to be rendered speechless as the very ship in question landed on the beach right in front of their house. Topaz looked absolutely stunned while the rest of the group looked knowingly outside.

"Nope. They'll show up soon," was all Garnet said before she, along with most of the other gems followed her outside to greet their allies. Peridot was left hanging her head in shame besides a fully stupefied Topaz who was babbling incoherently in confusion.

"Darn future vision," the green gem mumbled as she trudged outside. Topaz followed suit, not wanting to be alone in the house.

Soon the entirety of the new Crystal Gems crowded out on their patio to find a large yellow craft of obvious gem design deploying its landing gear. Before long a panel slip up revealing an odd gem that seemed to be conjoined twins. A single pair of red legs diverged into two bodies sporting a single arm and identical faces which both lit up when they caught sight of Steven.

"Steven, it's you!" spoke up the left head.

"We've finally made it!" finished the right head. Steven was already running down the stairs to hug them with a humongous grin on his face.

"Rutile! You're okay!" he cheered as he reached them and wrapped his arms around their waist. The twins were soon joined by another colorful figure; a pink and purple figure with gems on her collar and navel. She was also demonstrating clear anxiety as both of her pairs of arms were clamped together.

"Oh my, that was quite a commotion," she fretted to no one in particular, "I hope we finally put some distance between us and-"

Before she could ramble further, Steven called her name and embraced her as well. Rhodonite instantly brightened up seeing Steven and wrapped her lower arms around him.

"What a nice place…" drawled on the next figure from the ship. A massive caterpillar like gem which, unbeknownst to the majority of the Crystal Gems, had six components. Steven merely ran up to her with the same joyful expression and hugged her face.

"Fluorite! I can't believe you're here! You made it!"

"Well, that last shake up got a bit dicey. Those enemy fighters really knew their stuff," replied the actual captain of the ship. Much to the absolute astonishment of Steven and his friends it was none other than Lars. Now decked out in a red and black ensemble and practically glowing with confidence, he hardly resembled the awkward standoffish teenager who was abducted months ago. The fact that his skin and hair were now a fluorescent pink were actually some of the least drastic changes.

"Steven, how do you know all these gems? How'd your friend get a hold of this ship?! HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE?!" shouted Pearl as her brain practically short-circuited in light of so much new information. Lars, attempting to assuage the situation, moved forward to explain only to forget the gap between the opening of the ship and the ground. He fell flat on his face on the sand, prompting the last member of the Off-Colors to emerge.

"Watch your step, Captain Lars!" warned Padparadscha, the petite sapphire with the same dutiful tone as always.

"Thanks Pap…" muffled Lars begrudgingly before Steven helped him up. The tension seemed to drop at his comical fall. The five entered the temple along with the rest of the gems, all of them glad to have their arduous journey to Earth finally behind them.

* * *

You almost had to feel sorry for the Violet Agate Facet-6R4C Cut-3XA. She had the unenviable task of reporting her absolute disaster of a mission to Yellow Diamond herself. Standing in front of the colossal matriarch who was clearly getting more and more upset with every dour detail she spoke, Violet could practically feel her chances of leaving with her life, let alone her rank, dwindle away with each word. After too many agonizing moments to count, the briefing was over and Yellow let out a long sigh.

"So let me get this straight. Your commanding officer, a personal member of Blue Diamond's court, was shattered by Rose Quartz herself. You not only failed to bring arrest her, but you also lost almost one hundred soldiers to the enemy force despite having superior numbers and firepower. Almost every ship in your brigade was destroyed by a stolen gem craft, which has been pursued for some time now. And on top of that, at least one of your officers turned traitor and is now assisting the rebellion. Is that correct?"

"Y-y-yes my Diamond," stuttered the agate, "W-we caught all of this on s-surveillance once we escaped the enemy craft, but we had practically n-n-no survivors of the a-attack. I-I assumed you would rather p-preserve any remaining resources and information rather than make a b-b-blind attack."

The yellow matriarch then rose from her throne. Her posture was as perfect as always, but now the air radiated with pure, hardly contained fury. Violet could have sworn she saw sparks of energy bounce off her skin. She dare not shut her eyes out of fear of agitating her Diamond further, but she wished she did not have to see her own death.

"That will be all, agate."

Violet could hardly believe it, but she silently thanked every star she could think of and left after a typical salute. As she practically ran out of Yellow's personal chamber, Yellow Pearl could still feel the loathing rippling out of Yellow. And she had no choice but to stay in the same room as her in preparation from her next order. Before she could even ask what to do next, her communicator went off. She checked the caller and immediately began shaking in horror.

"M-m-m-m-My Diamond, y-y-y-you have someone who wants to speak to you."

"Refuse it, Pearl. I'm in no mood to talk," rebutted Yellow as she returned to her throne and began trying to calm herself down. She did not get very far before her Pearl, now quivering like never before, walked up to her.

"I-I-I hate to i-i-impose, My Diamond, but I think you r-r-r-really need to-"

"What part of refuse don't you understand?!" shouted Yellow, her usual placid expression gone, "I don't care what some uppity zircon has to complain about! Unless it's a serious emergency, I don't want to hear it! Who's so important that they need my immediate attention?!"

"White Diamond…" squeaked out her pearl in the meekest voice she could muster. Her Diamond, for a rare moment, was utterly lost for words.

"S-Should I still refuse the call now?"

"REFUSE HER AND YOU'LL BE SHATTERED!" erupted Yellow sending a bolt of energy to her feet in panic. Yellow Pearl leapt into the air to avoid the bolt, giving her master some valuable time to recompose herself.

"I'm sorry, Pearl. Go and handle any minor complaints that come in while I converse with White."

While she would normally be thrilled to essentially be given the reins by her boss, and stupefied to actually get an apology from her, Yellow Pearl was far too shaken to feel any gratitude and merely left with a typical salute after giving up the prism-shaped communicator and accepting the call. That left the fearless matriarch by herself gingerly holding the tiny prism as if her life depended on it. In seconds a large screen appeared before her showing the face of the supreme matriarch of Homeworld.

"Hello, Yellow. So glad you could join us," greeted White with an unusually jovial tone. Yellow knew not to put her guard down, however, as she could still tell something was amiss. A second smaller screen soon appeared showing Blue Diamond. She was taking the meeting even worse than the more obstinate Yellow as she was already close to panicking. White, as usual, paid their discomfort no mind.

"I have recently learned that you two sent a small fleet to the planet of the fallen rebellion. According to your report, you were aiming to capture Rose Quartz, the gem responsible for shattering Pink Diamond, but even with your superior firepower and numbers you lost spectacularly. Is that correct?"

Blue was already beginning to shake as she struggled to hold back her tears. Yellow, already fearing the inevitable punishment, looked her superior in the eyes and held back the scream that was building in her throat long enough to answer.

"Yes White, that is correct. I have just been briefed of the outcome by one of the survivors of the expedition."

"Interesting…" commented White with that same smile, before her tone became harsher, "And yet there are a few details that I need to understand. Blue, was the gem in charge of this mission a high-ranking member of your court?"

"Y-y-yes White," responded the morose matriarch, "Aquamarine Facet-5W1E Cut-4XF. She was the responsible for apprehending Rose Quartz on an earlier mission, so she seemed to be the ideal candidate."

"Really? Because I understand she outright abandoned the battle to interrogate two innocuous gems. How does such a prominent gem make such an illogical and foolish mistake? I would expect such a paltry mistake from a common agate, but it was an aquamarine! And this is a major blunder for you too Blue. It is inexcusable to have such an incompetent gem in your court. Do you need some mentoring on how to properly select gems for your court, Blue?"

"N-n-n-no thank you, White. That is unnecessary and it would d-distract you from your duties," choked Blue in scarcely-contained horror. Even Yellow had to repress a shudder at the thought of being personally reeducated by White Diamond. The pale sovereign did not acknowledge their fear, but was assured that she gotten her point across. She then dropped her smile and all her usual cheery demeanor.

"From what I have seen, you two have rushed in headlong to this endeavor with no forethought. You have wasted our resources on a pointless vendetta that was resolved eons ago. If the rebellion somehow survived our final solution, then they should be easily dispatched of. And yet here you two are, Diamonds, the unstoppable force behind a universal campaign, wallowing in failure. I let the trial debacle slide since that was a private affair, but now your abrupt attack has left a small hole in our forces. One that will most certainly be noticed. It is a hole that reminds us not only does the rebellion still exist, it thrives. How long will it be before they start spreading their influence to colonized planets and leading a full-scale revolution?"

"But White, it wasn't even ten gems! We should have demolished them in an instant!"

"DID I ASK FOR YOUR INPUT, YELLOW?!" shrieked the ivory queen, her flawless composure cracking for an instant. Demure as she might be to most, she was still the head of a multi-galaxy spanning empire with millennia of experience wiping out any and all obstacles that prevented her further conquest.

"Besides, there's a flaw in your argument: If Rose Quartz and her group are so insignificant, how did they overpower a small fleet and almost a hundred troops?"

Yellow had to admit, with enormous shame, her superior had a point. Said superior thankfully readopted her graceful poise and spoke with a far gentler, but still commanding tone.

"The only positive consequence of this disaster is that it has enlightened me to an urgent matter: You two have become woefully incompetent. You have let emotions completely rule your judgment, and that is why you sent such a significant force without doing any form of proper investigation to gather information on Rose or how she has persisted for so long. You simply received a vague tip from an unknown entity and placed all your efforts into what, for all you know, could have been misinformation made to sabotage you. It is clear that now we have to retaliate. I cannot let such a disgrace to our empire go unpunished, but this time I will be personally overseeing the efforts."

Hearing that White would be directly involved with external affairs for the first time in even they did not know how long, the other two were deeply concerned. They dared not raise her anger again, but their expressions spoke for them.

"I see you are still letting your sentiments for Pink Diamond rule your judgments. This is exactly why I must get involved. Do either of you have any objections?"

"I-I-I want to avenge her…" whispered Blue, mustering all her courage as she did so, "I want t-to be the one who brings that g-gem in-"

"Really? After all this time you still weep and mourn her? You are supposed to be an incorruptible leader. Yet here you are sobbing like a frightened peon. Perhaps I should also oversee all your colonies if you are so unbalanced."

"No!" shouted Yellow, coming to her comrade's aid before she could hang herself with her words, "Blue has always been the sentimental one. You know this, White. She is more than capable of managing her colonies, but she has never fully gotten over Pink's shattering. She just needs more time."

Blue actually looked flustered from the comfort, but White was unamused.

"How considerate of you, Yellow. You claim to follow my example, yet here you are coddling her weakness and ensuring she will never move past this moping. I shall prepare to deal with the rebellion myself, but before I go I want you both to contemplate this question. If Pink Diamond was as wonderful as you claim, someone who needs so much time to be missed, how did a single gem shatter her? Frankly, logic would dictate she would hardly be missed if she really is that pathetic. I'll let you both consider this and I expect an answer when I speak to you again. That will be all."

White Diamond then shut off her communicator leaving Yellow and Blue to ponder the question she left them with. Or at least Blue would be if she were not silently boiling in misery and anger. Yellow, in a rare speechless moment, simply watched her fellow Diamond sob as she herself felt the need to cry without Blue's influence for the first time in ages.

**Lars and the Off-Colors have arrived! Yay! Topaz can finally be a Crystal Gem! Yay! Adamite and Cinnbar are good guys now! Yay!**

**Downside to all this: White Diamond gets involved. How will her influence change things up? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please free free to leave a review!**


	27. Family

**Well, it's once again time for things to cool down at the Beach House before things get serious again!**

The next few days saw the temple get remarkably crowded as the Crystal Gems almost doubled in number after the Battle for the Temple. Even with the case of Fluorite having to stay outside due her sheer size that left over a dozen gems suddenly needing to work under one roof. Although "work" might be an exaggeration considering that after all the stress of their latest encounter with Homeworld some rest and relaxation was definitely in order.

While training and the like never vanished for Steven, the mood was infinitely more laid-back than the immediate past. He was clearly giddy about having so many new faces in the house and was even happier once he told Greg and Connie of his achievements. Aside from getting more somber when the unfortunate subject of Aquamarine came up, he was proud of their victory and the lives they helped improve.

The hardest of the bunch to adapt was definitely Topaz as she more or less spent several hours of her first real day on Earth standing around the house in a state of perpetual awkwardness. She had a habit of shifting her eyes and looking over her shoulder, clearly afraid that Homeworld might be after her and completely at a loss with what to do with herself. On Homeworld she was always ferried around from one mission to another, never stopping for a break. Now she had all the time in the world, literally due to the agelessness of gems, but nothing to spend it on. The following day seemed to be going in the same manner until Lapis walked up to her.

"What's up with you?" was all she asked in her usual aloof tone.

"It's… I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I just-"

"I know the feeling. At least you were out and about all that time. I spent several millennia stuck in a mirror, so I get the feeling. I think I've got something that'll help."

Lapis merely led her to the bookshelves lining the walls and grabbed the first-season DVD boxset of _Camp Pining Hearts_ before walking upstairs to Steven's room. The boy was actually up there for a change taking a rest after running his now-routine five laps around Beach City.

"Oh hey guys! What's up?"

"Could we use your TV? Topaz has nothing to do so I want to show her my show."

"Of course. Casa de Universe is open to all alien refugees who watch cheesy soap operas. You do that while I go spar with Garnet." He then headed downstairs leaving Topaz even more confused. How could he be so at peace with everything?

Regardless, Lapis soon had them watching the pilot episode of hers and Peridot's favorite show. Topaz merely stared blankly at the screen for the entire twenty-two-minute runtime until the credits rolled. She then looked at Lapis with the same awkward expression that had been on her face for most of her time on Earth and asked the burning question on her mind.

"What was the point of that?"

"Well, if you ask Peridot, she'd go on and on about them foreshadowing for season nine and how this all ties into her conspiracy theories-"

"No, I meant this whole thing. Why does it exist? What is it supposed to do?"

"Umm…entertain? It's just a show that people watch and enjoy for fun. You never had anything like that on Homeworld?"

"We have celebrations, but that's just to celebrate some accomplishment. And weed out any disruptive gem to the upper-crusts, but other than that, not really. I mean there's singing and dancing, but no one does that just because."

"Wow. I knew Homeworld sucked, but now they're a bunch of uptight party-poopers too."

Such a blunt statement caused Topaz to laugh briefly and was also shocked to hear her openly insult the gem hierarchy. Sure, she may have loathed Homeworld and its rules for quite some time, but she would never admit it! That was a one-way ticket to getting split up and then she really would have nothing to keep her going.

"You don't have to worry about someone hurting you hear. It took me a long time to realize that, but now I feel safe here. And if Homeworld tries to mess with you, we can help you. Better now?"

Topaz simply nodded as she felt a weight lift from her shoulders, a weight she had gotten so used to carrying she hardly felt it for the longest time. Lapis then left her alone in Steven's room to continue watching the ever-complicated relationships of flag wars and camp counselor love-triangles.

Hours passed until eventually Steven was wrapping up for the day. By the time Steven came back and readied himself his comfy pajamas and comforter, he found Topaz sobbing hysterically on his bed with her head in his pillow.

"Season one finale?" he asked. Topaz only wailed louder in response, prompting the drowsy boy to pat her on the shoulder and tell her it turns out alright in the end without giving away any spoilers. He managed to cajole her off his mattress as she slunk downstairs already fathoming how season two would go and how relieved it was to finally have something joyful in her life besides her relationship.

The next morning the beach house was still alive with activity. Greg walked to his house only to find Amethyst and Cinnabar roughhousing on the beach. Apparently the pair's snark remarks to each other in their first encounter has stemmed into something of a friendly rivalry. The two seemed to be in a tussle over who was getting dunked in the ocean with them both making jabs and taunts all the way. The only thing Greg found even weirder was the literal spaceship parked in front of his house and that these were all common occurrences in his life. Some fathers were concerned about their sons joining the football team or getting into dating around this age. He was worried about the dozen or so alien women in his house and his son training to fight intergalactic warlords. He was taken out of his waxing when he heard a loud splash.

"Hah, take that hothead! You wanna give up now? I've got years of wrestling experience under my belt?" goaded Amethyst as her warm-colored adversary rose literally steaming.

"I spent years dealing with Adamite, you runt! I'll show you to talk to me like that!" She then forced the water under Amethyst to heat up through her feet making the shorter scrapper leap into the air yowling as her feet burned.

As Greg moved on as their horseplay continued, he spotted Garnet and Adamite chaperoning them from the porch with equally amused smiles on their faces.

"It is refreshing to finally have another gem with Cinnabar's tenacity," remarked the more muscular of the two, "She is not exactly the easiest to entertain."

"It's nice for Amethyst too. She finally has a playmate on her level. I remember she was disappointed at how fragile Steven could be when he was younger."

"Um, hey ladies. Everything good out here?" he asked also addressing Fluorite who had been watching their spectacle since it began.

"Yeah, we had to shepherd them outside when they started. Apparently Cinnabar poked Amethyst awake from her nap and that got her in a bunch," answered Garnet who was privately chuckling as they two started biting and pulling each other's hair.

Greg simply shrugged and accepted this as part of his life. Inside he found Steven and Pearl simply washing dishes at the sink, Topaz running upstairs with the next season of _Camp Pining Hearts_ clutched in her arms, and Lapis and the Rutile twins having a conversation around the fire pit. All in all, he actually considered this a rather low-key day for this household. Then he watched Bismuth emerge from Peridot's room with smoke rolling off her shoulders and a prominent scowl on her face.

"What happened to you?" asked the concerned father.

"I almost poofed myself," Bismuth grumbled much to the amusement of Steven who could not help but giggle at her choice of words.

"Well, shucks, sorry about that," Greg consoled before moving in to whisper in her ear, "While I've got you here, how's the project coming?"

"It would be coming along a lot faster if Peridot was here! She went out hours ago and I need her to work on the wiring. I'm not very good with electronics and so I tried to do it myself and-"

"Got shocked for your troubles?" asked Pearl who overheard their conversation. Bismuth could only nod in embarrassment.

"I remember when I first got into engineering. I had more than my fair share of accidents. And that was all before electricity was invented! Or the steam engine. Or iron."

"Man Pearl, you've been busy all these years! What'd you try to do, make some giant death ray in case Homeworld came back?" snarked Bismuth only for Pearl to blush.

"Actually Rose and I did contemplate creating a light-based weapon with the destructive capability to eliminate any Homeworld troops before they could land after the original war ended. We…ran into a major design flaw."

"Oh yeah, what was it?"

"We learned that mirrors, even thousands upon thousands of them focused on the same point, could not create a beam of light concentrated enough to destroy the craft. The most we could have done was blind the pilot. Hundreds of hours and thousands of panes of glass wasted and it was horribly difficult to set up and put away! I'm just grateful no one else tried that idea or it would be a profound waste of time At least we eventually refined into the laser light cannon."

"Huh. Well, have you seen Peridot anywhere? I need her help with this."

"Last I checked she went into that ship the Off-Colors arrived in. Don't know what happened since then."

Bismuth thanked her for the help and made her way outside after spotting Amethyst putting Cinnabar in a headlock. She then opened the Sun Incinerator and quickly found herself to the bridge of the ship after hearing Peridot's voice. What she found there made her stop in her tracks.

"Oh my, aren't you a gorgeous piece of hardware!" cooed Peridot as she was draped all over the main console touching every button she could get her hands on. She was so enamored that she did not even notice Bismuth standing about thirty feet away.

"So sleek, so modern, so advanced! If there's one thing I miss about my days on Homeworld, it's getting handle such magnificent machinery. I can't believe they managed to come up with this not even a year after I left. I can only imagine how it feels to pilot such powerful thrusters. I can practically feel the rush of flying faster than sound! One day you will be mine to command…"

Before she could go on, Bismuth burst out laughing harder than she had in her entire life. In only seconds she fell on the floor kicking her legs and crying from the exertion. This caused Peridot to snap out of her trance and fall on the floor as she rolled off the console in a heap.

"B-B-B-Bismuth?! What are you doing here? And what's so funny?!"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't… know you and the spaceship… w-were having a private moment! Do you…want me to come back after yo-you're done buffing yourself?" was all she could sputter out before another fit of laughter overtook her. Peridot's cheeks heated up instantly and she marched up to the still-guffawing blacksmith.

"I'll have you know I wasn't doing anything inappropriate! I was simply admiring this vessel so I could get a feeling for its controls. This ship is an invaluable asset for us and we need to learn how to pilot it!"

"Uh-huh. Now, do you want me to leave so you can finish in peace or do you prefer someone watching?" Bismuth then entered another laughing frenzy as Peridot's cheeks heated up once again.

"It's not funny! And don't act like you don't get carried away by your own fascinations! I've seen you work at your forge and start ogling your own swords!"

"Hey! Don't you bring me handiwork into this! I don't treat them like their alive or that I want to fuse with them!"

"Really?! So if I went to your forge right now and started banging all of the blades against rocks until their dull and chipped you wouldn't care?"

"O-of course not!" Bismuth bluffed though her eyes clearly betrayed her words, "I could always make another one."

"Oh, and what about one of the ones from that armory Pearl showed Lapis? You wouldn't mind if I took one of those?"

"Those are antiques! W-why would want to use one of those? I could just make you one just like it personally!"

"If they are of so little concern to you, why are you dodging the question? After all, they're outdated, right?"

"Because if you dent up one of my babies, I'll dent your face! Each one of those was handmade! I spent eons globetrotting to learn the different shapes and techniques to make those!"

"Ha! Looks like I'm not the only one with an obsession!"

"I have a healthy respect for an art form. You were in here staring at that console like you wanted to roll around on it naked!"

"But I don't wear actual garments."

"Point still stands. You wouldn't want to make Lapis jealous, would you?"

"W-what?! What does she have to do with any of this?!"

"Really? The gem you spent months living with almost completely alone and now trusts you enough to fuse with you? And I thought Biggs could be dense when it came to other gem's feelings."

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" shouted Peridot as she leapt onto Bismuth's shoulders and began tugging at her hair.

The two began unintentionally mimicking Amethyst and Cinnabar outside as they engaged in a wrestling match of their own. While Bismuth clearly held the size and power advantage, Peridot proved remarkably agile as she crawled all over the blacksmith biting and slapping anything she could reach. Eventually their grappling ended with Bismuth pining Peridot to the floor with each of the former's hands completely covering the latter's arms. They each prepared to trade more insults, but were interrupted when the hatch to the ship opened.

"What on Earth are you two doing?!" exclaimed a rather flustered Pearl who stood alongside Lapis Lazuli and Rhodonite. All three of the gems looked at the roughhousing gems with a mix of confusion, amusement and embarrassment.

"We were merely settling a dispute in a calm, rational manner," explained Peridot before struggling in vain to escape Bismuth's grasp.

Pearl stepped in and managed to separate the two before grabbing them both by the hair and pulling them inside with Lapis following along while Rhodonite double-checked nothing was broken. It was also hide her blushing as watching the encounter could not help but remind her about how her components used to meet in secret away from their boss Morganite.

"Now would you both care to explain what your little scuffle was all about?" demanded Pearl as Peridot and Bismuth sat in opposite sides of the fire pit with almost everyone in the temple listening in out of curiosity. Even Amethyst and Cinnabar came in upon the former recognizing that someone was in trouble.

Peridot came clean about her ogling the Sun Incinerator and confessing that she missed a small part of Homeworld. Bismuth then revealed that she went too far with her taunting and insinuated a romance between her partner in construction and Lapis. The latter revelation, much to the surprise of everyone in the room, did not bother her.

"So you thought me and Peridot were a couple now because of Turquoise? Big deal."

"You're really not upset, Lapis?" asked Steven.

"I might have been if this happened earlier, but one thing I learned being here is why should I care what people think of me? I'm happy here and Peridot's still a friend of mine. If they want to make assumptions, that's their problem."

"That's a very mature way of looking at it, Lapis," commended Pearl, "Now Bismuth, do you have something to say?"

"I'm sorry for that Peri, I guess I still have to work on my temper," the blacksmith could not help but look at Steven as she felt a wave of regret wash over her. That changed, however, when Adamite stepped forward with the same aloof expression as usual and spoke to her.

"You might have more improvements to make, but you have clearly made some clear efforts to remedy your behavior. As long as you possess the ability to recognize your flaws, there is a far higher chance of you achieving your goals. Do not doubt yourself and you will reach your desired outcome."

Bismuth was shocked by her sentiment, but appreciated it nonetheless. Topaz, having taken a break from her binge-watching to observe, felt herself tear up again. Whether it was being reminded of how much better her situation was or how much the scene reminded her of a touching moment of _Camp Pining Hearts_ was anyone's guess.

As Bismuth got up to get back to work in Peridot's room, she found the green gem had not moved from her spot.

"What's up with you? I said I was sorry."

"It's not your statements that bother me. I am more surprised that no one reacted to my confession."

"What? That you miss Homeworld tech?"

"Affirmative. I was worried that you all, especially Garnet or Pearl, would doubt my convictions to the cause if I expressed fondness for my former occupation."

"You shouldn't," spoke Garnet who was standing behind her chair.

"AAH! We can't all see the future, you know! One day you'll poof a gem being so abrupt."

"Hm…I don't see that happening." Peridot only raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm kidding about that, but not about your feelings. Peridot, we all had things we enjoyed on Homeworld. We won't label you a traitor for saying something nice about your old home."

Peridot released a breath she had been keeping in for some time now and looked up at the perma-fusion with relief. She then shut her eyes as she let her emotions out.

"After the whole Cluster incident, I honestly wasn't sure what my purpose was as a Crystal Gem. All I had was my proficiency with machines and with nothing to build. I felt …powerless. I don't have the combat capabilities of you, Amethyst and Pearl. I didn't even have any special abilities like Lapis. When I learned I could move metal with my mind I felt better, but it still wasn't enough. Sure I was happy with all my meep-morps and the Internet, but I never felt like a part of this team. It wasn't until I stopped Jasper that I felt I was worth anything to this team. Now…I don't want to lose that. I want to contribute in every way possible and make sure that the Diamonds never have their way with Earth."

When she opened her eyes she found literally every other Crystal Gem grinning at her. Steven then embraced her in a crushing hug.

"Aw, look at you getting in touch with her emotions today! So adorable!" the hybrid whimpered as Peridot tried her best to hug him back despite his enhanced strength taking her breath away.

"Come here, you squirt!" exclaimed Bismuth as she joined in by cradling them both in her arms. Peridot was now gasping for air.

"Someone…help…"

"Oh, hush up, you nerd!" added Amethyst as she decided to join in herself as she grabbed onto Bismuth's side. Pearl and Garnet joined on by hopping onto Bismuth's shoulder which caused the bulky gem to fall over and form a pile.

"Should have seen that coming," remarked Garnet.

"This is just like the old days! I love you all so much!" exclaimed Pearl in a moment of pure happiness as she soaked in the familial love of the moment.

"I…can't…breathe…" wheezed Peridot from the bottom of the pile. Lapis either did not hear her or did not care as she hopped on top of them all. Adamite and Cinnabar then joined in as well.

"Considering we can breathe in the vacuum of space, I find your complaint quite illogical," responded the former with the barest hint of a smile on her face.

"I just like hugs!" answered the latter in her usual excited tone. The Off-Colors, save for Fluorite who was still outside, all piled on as well.

"Are we doing this right?" questioned Rhodonite.

"This is fun!" spoke the Rutile twins in unison.

"Garnet's mass will cause Bismuth to tip over!" predicted Padparadscha, much to the fusion's humor.

"Sorry, Pap, I'm taken," she joked in response.

"Where have you even been this whole time?!" shouted Peridot in confusion.

"We were checking out your bathroom," answered the left Rutile.

"It's really nice!" complimented her twin.

Topaz, the only gem still indoors and outside the dogpile, could not resist and hopped on the very top.

"You're all so nice! I want to stay on Earth forever!" she cheered shortly before the pile collapsed due to the uneven weight sending gems sprawling in every direction. The entire group, including Greg who had watched the whole spectacle, simply laughed at the event as they all laid spread out on the floor. They could have stayed that way for hours if it were not for a sudden appearance of a gem on the warp pad.

"So this is the rebel base? How quaint," commented a monochrome pearl dressed entirely in blacks, whites and grays. She seemed to be missing an eye as a large crack ran through the right side of her face. She stood in a stiff pose with both her arms extended and bent at the elbows with a chilling smile on her face. The Crystal Gems were immediately alarmed by her presence and slowly approached the warp pad.

"Who are you? Explain yourself!" demanded Pearl as she brought out her spear. The intruding pearl did not blink at the implied threat.

"I am White Pearl, humble servant of the illustrious White Diamond. I am here to negotiate the terms of your surrender."

**And now it's time for a fun round of trying to reason with White Pearl. Tune in for THAT fun exchange next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave questions or comments in the review section!**


	28. Warning

**And now, the Crystal Gems learn that they have the head honcho of the Diamonds after them. Fun times!**

It took several minutes for the new pearl's words to sink in. All of the joy and warmth of their home was gone and replaced with pure dread. Steven, on the other hand, was stumped on something.

"Wait, who's White Diamond?" he asked, which caused White Pearl to literally look down at him with her eye. Her expression and stance, while never changing, gave off a disturbing amount of arrogance.

"White Diamond is the grand architect of the entire, glorious gem empire. She is responsible for conceiving and creating every one of us. She is also greatly displeased with the failure of Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond in capturing the traitorous Rose Quartz responsible for shattering Pink Diamond."

"If you want Rose, then you're out of luck," responded Garnet, "She's…no longer with us."

"Really? Because we have recorded footage of the battle. We clearly saw someone use Rose Quartz's shield with her unique insignia on it. So that means you either present her immediately or have lying to a personal delegate of White Diamond added to your charges."

Steven once again felt his temper flare up, a nasty side-effect of his recent repeated run-ins with Homeworld, and brandished the shield without any prompting.

"You were watching me," he remarked, "But I'm not Rose Quartz. I lied to Yellow and Blue in the trial. Happy?"

"So we'll have to add perjury to your crimes then," remarked White Pearl without missing a beat, "Very well then. Is that your admission of surrender, Rose?"

"Did you not just hear him, you freak?! He's not Rose so shut up and get out of our house already!" yelled Amethyst as she summoned her whip. The cracked envoy actually began to snicker at the threat.

"Oh my, it seems you've also been harboring defective gems! You're just trying to be the most wanted gem in the universe aren't you?" she asked Steven condescendingly before walking towards Amethyst, "And it seems she's been feeding you delusions about having any form of importance or value despite your flaws. Such abuse."

"I'LL SHOW YOU ABUSE, YOU-" she began to holler, but suddenly two more figures emerged from the warp stream. Two lithe gems dressed entirely in what appeared to be black jumpsuits with only their grey hands, feet, faces and a single white diamond emblem on their waist, making them appear as if shrouded in shadows. They were, shockingly, completely bald and had their faces stuck in a permanent scowl. Without making any audible footsteps they rushed right at Amethyst with two jet-black daggers in hand and struck her down. She could not even fight back before she was a helpless purple gemstone clattering on the floor.

"And now your defective quartz has seen what a proper gem can do thanks to my onyx bodyguards." One of the onyxes held Amethyst's gem in her hand and held her knife over it, a clear warning to the Crystal Gems that one false move would end their friend's life.

The others were struck speechless by how blisteringly fast the two black gems could move. If it were not for the black roundish stones on their bodies, they might have guessed they were some sort of literal killing machine.

"That's enough out of you! Put Amethyst down and leave our home now or you'll regret it!" commanded Garnet as she stood several heads over White Pearl. Even still the slightly damaged gem was not intimidated.

"Well, it seems you've been fused for so long you've suffered some sort of mental damage. That must explain such delusional behavior if you honestly think you have the power to be making any sort of command."

Garnet all but growled as she felt the desire to either freeze or burn the belligerent pearl only to be reminded of Amethyst still being held hostage.

"Now if we can act civilized from here on out, let us precede with the negotiations. Where would you prefer to conduct this business, Rose?" She then turned towards Steven, never changing her stance. Steven reluctantly put his shield away and led her to the porch outside. All gems on both sides followed him out with the onyx gems pushing their way out first. Even still Steven tried to keep a level head and gestured to a chair for White Pearl to sit in. Surprisingly she did so, though she apparently had to keep her arms outstretched at all times. Steven took the seat opposite of her as the congregation of Crystal Gems watched on. The onyx guards stood in front of all of them acting as a sort of buffer.

"Alright, if you want to talk then we can talk," started Steven, "What do you want?"

"I want only what White Diamond wants and she wants you arrested and shattered for the shattering of Pink Diamond."

"Why is she only getting involved now? She's angry with the other diamonds or something?"

"Correct. Yellow and Blue are too emotionally involved with the matter to make effective decisions. This is why, in her boundless wisdom, White has decided to take a personal interest in this endeavor. It is an honor to be the subject of her attention."

"Thanks…" Steven muttered to himself sarcastically, a sentiment that was shared by most of his family. "If we're going to talk, I want you to let Amethyst go first."

"You would honestly hold up negotiating your own safety to ensure the safety of a _defective_ quartz?" asked White Pearl, actually managing to sound slightly shocked. Steven merely nodded and folded his arms, implying he would not go into any further discussion unless his demand was met. She eventually relented and had the onyx holding Amethyst's stone to place it on the ground so she could reform in her own time.

"There. Your servant is no longer in any imminent danger. Satisfied?"

"She's not me servant, she's my _family_! If you want to talk, you don't insult them anymore or you can just leave!"

"Oh my…You've gotten awfully sentimental after all this time. And here I thought you were a ruthless apostate dedicated to tearing down the Diamond Authority. Your edge has most definitely dulled over the ages, Rose Quartz!"

"And stop calling me that! My name is Steven!"

"Steven, don't let her rile you up. You need to keep a level head," advised Garnet from behind her guard. The boy heeded her words and took a deep breath.

"And Rose never wanted to destroy the diamonds, she just didn't want a colony on Earth. I'm not proud of what she did in the past, but it's done now." He could not help but glance down at his gemstone at the thought.

"Whatever rationalization you have made to justify your actions does not concern me. All I am concerned with is if you will return to Homeworld and face the consequences of your crimes in peace," responded the damaged diplomat. Steven may not have been a savvy strategist, but he knew enough to realize she just laid out her demands.

"And what if I say no?"

"Well then, White Diamond will have no choice but to obliterate you and your entire base. You and all of your insurgents will surely be shattered."

That instantly put everyone on eggshells. Some like Pearl and Bismuth steeled themselves, clearly ready for a fight. Others like Adamite and Lapis were stupefied by such a blatant and morbid threat. And still others like Topaz and the Off-Colors began shaking at the foreboding possibility of losing their lives.

"WHAT?! You can't do that!" shouted Steven in a panic, his heartbeat increasing. White Pearl looked as pleased as ever and actually chuckled as if she heard an entertaining joke.

"Well of course we can annihilate you, Rose! We have vastly superior technology, armies waiting at the ready to capture you, and an enormous list of charges you have to answer for!"

"You mean besides the Pink Diamond thing?! What else is there?!"

"Well, White did compile a list of all the crimes you and your associates have committed, so I will enlighten you. For a start there is the 248,309 gems shattered by rebel forces during your original rebellion."

Steven did a massive double-take at that number. He knew Rose had to make some sacrifices in her fight for Earth, but to hear that hundreds of thousands of gems died thanks to her was almost too much to take. He was not the only one aghast by the statistic, either. Just about everyone outside of Garnet, Pearl or Bismuth was some combination of appalled, blown away or disbelieving. Even Adamite looked gobsmacked, apparently hoping she misheard it. One glance at Pearl, though, told her all she needed to know.

"And that's not including Pink Diamond, mind you."

Steven, and most of the other gems, did not want to hear the rest but they held their breath for White Diamond's messenger to continue.

"Bringing in some more recent transgressions, there is the imprisonment of almost one hundred Homeworld soldiers and the shattering of one aquamarine."

That got Steven to look away in regret. He was doing better than Topaz, however, as she began shuddering profusely. One of the onyx guards noticed her anxiety and forcefully pulled her out to the front. White Pearl quickly understood the situation.

"Ah yes, this is the one responsible for that crime. Perhaps you would be willing to turn over such a recent acquisition if it meant potential freedom for your more valuable subordinates?"

Topaz suddenly went from terrified to outright overwrought as she outright broke apart over the suggestion. Now separated into two slightly smaller, near identical gems, the topaz with the right-facing gem ran off the porch and onto the sand in tears with her left-gemmed lover chasing after her begging for her to calm down.

Steven moved to stand up and go after them, but White Pearl was not having it.

"Are you leaving already? You haven't given me any concrete answer."

"I'm going to check up on my _friend_ first! And no, I'd never sell her out just to save me!"

"No Steven, you need to focus on this. I can go talk to them if you want," offered Garnet which he graciously accepted. The black gems allowed her to pass through and before long she was jogging out of sight.

"Back on the topic of your more recent offenses, there is that escape from your trial. You commandeered personal property of Blue Diamond herself, damaging it and the building in the process. There is also the destruction of several sentry robonoids that, as I can now tell, you did to save several off-color gems for some unfathomable reason."

The foursome of former Homeworld refugees clearly did not take well to the comment. Even Padparadscha frowned at such a statement and had to hold back a remark about how the inquisitive pearl was being an offensive jerk, but bit her tongue. The others were also getting sick of the Homeworld gem's impudent attitude and Steven was no exception.

"But above all that, Rose, White Diamond wants you shattered because you are the biggest threat to our glorious empire. A single infinitesimal mistake that somehow undid so much of our work."

"She stopped one colony from being made! How does that make her any kind of a threat?!" shrieked Pearl, looking half ready to storm the table until one of the onyxes brought a dagger to her face. White Pearl resumed her speech.

"Your defective pearl raises a point there, Rose. Logic dictates that one failure out of thousands of successes warrants no intervention. But by that same margin, your failure is also an outlier. Never before have we witnessed a gem so defiant and so dangerous that she actually attacked her own diamond before. It was so unthinkable that even White was disturbed when she first heard the news. Hence why she along with the other two diamonds took such drastic action in ending your rebellion before it could become a large-scale epidemic."

"Epidemic? No offense to Rose Quartz herself, but I sincerely doubt she would topple your entire infrastructure," commented Peridot.

"Ah, but outliers are a troublesome matter. They defy all logic and throw off the rest of the data and as such are usually excluded. We did just that with the final solution to your original rebellion and, if you do not surrender, we will have to do the same with your current band before it gets out of hand."

That statement made the entire group fall silent. Any and all thoughts outside of dread were gone. Lapis, despite feeling a sickening chill in the air, spoke up.

"So that's it? You're just going to have the diamonds blast us all to oblivion without a fight?"

"Of course not, that would be a remarkable waste of time and resources for the Diamond Authority. We have other means to dispose of you."

While that spread a great sense of relief between them, it was still clear they were not out of the woods yet. Steven took a moment to breathe before speaking.

"So…If you're not going to do that stunt that corrupted the gems like last time, then what are you going to do?"

"First of all, even if I possessed the information of how White Diamond planned to retaliate, why would I share any of it with you? Giving away such information to our greatest enemy would be an incomprehensibly illogical move. And secondly, what do you mean by corruption?"

The Crystal Gems all looked puzzled, but for two different reasons. The longtime members of the group were perplexed at her lack of insight while the newer members were all perturbed by the very mention of corrupted gems.

* * *

While that was going on, Garnet eventually found the pair of panicked yellow gems sitting on the far end of the beach in walking distance of the Big Donut. The right-gemmed topaz was still bawling her eyes out while her left-gemmed partner tried to assuage her fear and guilt with sweet nothings in her ear. The taller fusion could not help but chuckle at their relationship. She decided to stay back and observe.

"Come on, Topaz, you don't need to cry anymore," assured the left-gemmed topaz, but her partner was having none of it.

"But Topaz, this is all MY fault! I got so angry that I shattered Aquamarine and now all those gems are in trouble!" She broke into a new round of blubbering. Her better half was not deterred.

"You weren't the only one who hated her, Topaz. I couldn't stand her as much as you and you know that."

"B-But now Steven and all those nice gems are in trouble because of it…I don't want to lose them or you!"

"Trust me, we were in trouble long before you got here," interjected Garnet much to the yellow duo's surprise. How they had missed the dark red, eight-foot tall fusion with the most peculiar afro ever coifed was beyond them, but they accepted her company.

"Is that pearl still there?" asked both of the topazes in unison causing Garnet to chuckle again.

"Yes, but Steven seems to keeping the situation under control and the others are there in case she tries something." She then turned to the right-gemmed half of the couple.

"Tell me why you're so upset."

"I-I just got carried away with Aquamarine s-so we shattered her so she couldn't come after us, b-but now White Diamond wants to hurt everyone and-"

"She's putting all the blame on herself," interrupted the left topaz, "Because she's always been the emotional one. It's much easier to stay composed when we're fused, but she just keeps kicking herself over this."

"You know, you two sound so much like Ruby and Sapphire it's almost scary. One who keeps her head down and the other wears her heart on her sleeve." The topazes were not sure how to take the compliment.

"Umm…thanks?" responded the left half.

"You're two different gems?" asked the right. Garnet held up their hands to reveal the two different, yet equally hued, stones. The pair could hardly believe it looking at her.

"I know it might seem weird or even wrong to you two, but it's true. Ruby and Sapphire decided long ago they weren't going to let Homeworld's rules keep them apart. I've been around for thousands of years and through all the turmoil I've always been grateful to still be together. But what you two need to know is that you're part of something bigger now. It isn't you two going up against the diamonds by yourself. I promise that as long as you are on Earth nothing will break you up unless you both decide to go your separate ways."

Both topazes said nothing, but shared a tearful glance at each other before hugging Garnet tightly and thanking her for the confidence boost. They wordlessly held hands and came together into their fused form, now able to look Garnet in the eye. The two then began their walk back to the house, wondering if the negotiations were going well in their absence.

* * *

The tension among the group seemed dissipate for the moment as everyone present was at a loss. Since White Pearl had no idea what corruption Steven was referring to, he naturally explained how the final strike of the Diamond Authority had essentially mutated many of the rebellion, and several Homeworld gems still on the planet, into feral beasts with little trace of their original selves. The pearl seemed actually surprised for the first time.

"Well, I must admit that was an unexpected side-effect of their assault the diamonds were not aware of. I will have to inform White Diamond of this in my briefing."

"So…what did you think I meant by corruption?" asked Steven out of innocent curiosity, unaware of the can of worms he just opened.

"I was under the assumption that you were referring to yourself, Rose Quartz. If there was any corrupting force affecting our empire, it would most certainly be you."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" questioned Pearl in a very flat, steely tone. She, along with most of the other observers, were already tensing their shoulders and balling their fists in anger with that one statement alone.

"That the real corruption to gems is from your appalling disregard for the proper place and position of gems."

As she continued, she actually lost her vapid smile as anger began to take hold. "White Diamond takes enormous care and consideration in the formation of every gem and how it fits into society. Your tactless approach of letting gems act however they wish is a disgrace to everything she and the other diamonds have worked for. Your original rebellion was proof of how flawed this system was, and yet it is clear you haven't changed your ways."

"Funny how flawed we were, and yet you're so threatened by us," blustered Bismuth.

"This attitude is exactly what I'm talking about! White Diamond designed the bismuth series to be approachable, efficient architects and yet you have warped this one into a defiant shell of her true self! You harbor broken and useless gems, forcing them to continue their existence instead of properly ending their torment."

"And by that, you mean shattering, right?!" asked Adamite, her usual incurious nature replaced with slowly-growing rage.

"And on top of that, you seem to be under the dangerous delusion you are somehow _helping_ these corrupted gems! As if your scandalous, perverted ways are for the betterment of gem kind! Even after all this time, you maintain your arrogance and demented mentality! Your shattering might be the key to finally stopping such a perilous mindset. Now…I will ask you one last time. Will you see reason and surrender yourself to the Diamond Authority? Or will you prolong the inevitable by putting up a fight?"

Steven Universe merely sat there in response. He could not bear himself to speak or even look White Pearl in the eye out of fear for doing something reckless. Hatred bubbled in his stomach and even he felt his ringing as her tirade on why everything he believed in was wrong and disgusting. He could only imagine that this was how his mother on Homeworld so long ago. Before he could answer, however, someone else made their presence known.

"That's enough out of you!" shouted Greg as he stormed out of the window he had been watching out of the entire time. He marched right through the peanut gallery, shoved past the onyx guards and stood over White Pearl.

"All you've done since you got here is insult my son, attack our friends and talk about how wonderful and amazing your diamond is supposed to be. If your diamond is so smart, could she maybe figure out how to tone down your ego and actually listen for a change?! Why should he do anything you ask of him?! And if that's not enough reason, you are the most insufferable person I've ever met and you should've met my scumbag former manager who treats women like cattle and used me as his personal meal ticket! I honestly don't know what gems have for a brain, but all I've seen is that you're the defective one! You honestly think killing gems just because they don't come out exactly how _you _like is _helping them_? That's cruel AND insane! Rose may not have been perfect, but she's a million times better than you. Now I want you and your cronies off my property before any more trouble happens."

The cracked envoy was rendered speechless for a moment. She then turned to Steven and asked him a single question.

"You allow an organic life form in your base of operations?"

Steven nodded proudly, impressed at his father's valor. The others could not help but be impressed with his fortitude. White Pearl had a slightly different reaction.

She burst into a fit of hysterical laughter made all the more uncanny by her never changing her facial expression or pose.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh my word, that's the most outlandish thing I've seen all day! What, is it supposed to be your servant?! Or have you actually stooped so low as to form a bond with one of them?! AHAHAHAHAHAHA, OH MY WORD THAT IS HILARIOUS!"

Her cacophonous laughter was stopped, however, by the now thoroughly-fuming Pearl who charged through her guards so fast even they did a double-take and planted a punch right in her face. The blow was so hard it caused her to break right through the porch railings. She was launched clear over the Sun Incinerator and was finally forced to move her arms as she rolled haphazardly into the sand until she reached the shore. All she could do once she came to a stop was look up with a small frown on her face.

"That man happens to be a dear friend of mine. I don't appreciate you insulting him or anyone else I love," responded Pearl as she stood on the table. Steven's jaw had dropped and his eyes were filled with stars.

White Pearl was no doubt incensed, but she still could not move her face freely. Instead she let her hatred show in three little words.

"Shatter her. Now."

The onyx guards moved to shank her from behind with the same blinding speed as before only to have Steven catch them both with his shield just in time. For the first time since they came here, the shadowy gems looked alarmed as Steven glared up at them. White Pearl could scarcely believe that "Rose" could match the speed of two onyxes in that condensed form. Her incredulity only grew as Garnet and Topaz walked up to her, the former picking her up by her waist and carrying her under her arms.

"I think it's time you go," spoke the perma-fusion as she walked past the still stunned onyxes. She delivered a quick electric shock to both of them, forcing them back into their stones as passed. Topaz picked them both up and followed Garnet inside where she put the now shell-shocked pearl on the warp pad along with her poofed escorts.

"Tell White Diamond that the Crystal Gems don't surrender. We never give up without a fight and we aren't letting you anywhere near Steven again."

White Pearl merely stood up and resumed her usual pose despite the sand still coating her body and her hair buns being ruined. She kept the same small frown on her face, but it was apparent she was eager to see all of the rebellion get their dues. She silently beamed away as the rest of the group filed inside. Amethyst, who had reformed shortly after the negotiations began, looked almost as dismayed as the fleeing pearl.

"Garnet…does this mean-"

"Pretty much. We need to get ready for another Homeworld attack."

**And once again, another battle is on the horizon. What is White Diamond's plan? How will the Crystal Gems prepare themselves? Will any more guest stars appear? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave questions or comments in the review section!**


	29. Remain Calm

**Before this chapter gets underway, I'd like to formally thank each and every reader because this story now has 10,000 hits! I never imagined this story would get this much of a backing behind it and it's all thanks to you! And with that, onward!**

Within five minutes of White Pearl's departure the force field was reactivated and coded so the Off-Colors could all enter. Peridot wanted to expand the range so Fluorite would not be left out in the open, but the six-gem fusion insisted she would be alright and they had greater problems to worry about. They all agreed to leave it active at all times until the imminent threat was dealt with.

Peridot and Bismuth became focused on getting a proper security device for the warp pad and to ensure that Homeworld would not be able to send any more surprises into their base of operations. Thanks to all the crashed Homeworld ships and dozens of dropped destabilizers they had the perfect building materials. The Off-Colors all agreed to monitor the skies from the Sun Incinerator for any incoming threats. While they were somewhat shaky about piloting their ship without Lars, they all understood he wanted to get back to his normal teenage life. That got a chuckle out of Steven that for once he might actually be excited to go to work at the Big Donut.

Pearl and Garnet redoubled their efforts on training Steven. The two decided to start pushing him harder since he had proven himself in what they all decided to call the Battle for the Temple. Anytime he was not sparring with them to improve his skills he was running laps around Beach City, lifting weights (purchased by Greg in an effort to get himself into better shape along with his son), and occasionally helping Connie with her sword training. The rare moments he got to himself were either spent simply unwinding with Connie or reviewing what he had already learned so he would not get rusty.

This left the remaining gems to their own devices. Lapis Lazuli, Adamite and Cinnabar all became guards for the temple and surveyed Beach City on regular patrols along with refining their own fighting abilities with Pearl and Garnet. Topaz was reluctant at first, but she actually found her place with the Off-Colors on their ship. With her centuries of experience shuttling Aquamarine around, she took to the captain's chair in no time and began to settle in to her own place. Amethyst, however, was the odd one out of the group as she seemed bizarrely disinterested. She was clearly distracted during any training sessions she showed up for, did not even bother with her surprise attacks on Steven anymore, and any and all attempts to console her were met with her blowing someone off and then literally running in the other direction.

To say that tensions were starting to run high at the temple was an understatement. While White Pearl's blatant hubris and flagrant bigotry got the group fired up, she also dropped some information that did not sit well with the team. One particular instance of this strain came as the elemental trio returned to home base from one of their rounds.

"Lapis, I have some concerns I need to address," asked Adamite as they walked into the temple past a still-forlorn Amethyst.

"What's up? You felt something underground?"

"No potential hostiles, but I was mulling over some of the information that pearl gave out. She mentioned the shattering of Pink Diamond?"

"You mean you didn't know?" Lapis looked at her green-skinned near-double only to find a solemn glance.

"Cinnabar and I spent millennia on this planet with no contact from Homeworld. We were aware the rebellion was over when we noticed the distinct lack of fighting, but we were never sure how."

"Plus the giant beam of light sweeping over the place was a clue that something bad happened," added Cinnabar as she took a seat on the counter idly twirling a flame between her fingers.

"Wait, you were here during the corruption?! How did you guys survive?"

"When we saw the insignia of the Diamond Authority in the sky and the massive light that came with it, I admittedly panicked and pulled Cinnabar as far underground as I could manage in my haste. It appears the weapon affected only the surface of the planet."

"We were down there for hours and I couldn't burn ANYTHING! It was the worst!" whined the pyrokinetic goofball. She briefly looked over towards Amethyst, sitting by the window as glum as could be, and pouted. Her attempt at getting another scrap going and potentially raise her buddy's spirit failed.

"Anyway…As she said, we remained down there for an extended period of time until we emerged and suddenly found ourselves stranded on this planet. We more or less spent our remaining time wandering around, though we did find several wailing stones in our travels. We made some efforts to contact Homeworld, but we never received a response."

"Probably because they didn't want us back…" grumbled Cinnabar.

"Well, sorry about you guys getting dumped like that," apologized Lapis, but Adamite moved closer to her and rested a hand on shoulders.

"My past is irrelevant at this point. In the end we are not only reunited, but now share a common goal. While I may not be entirely sure of what these Crystal Gems had to do in the past to achieve independence, these recent encounters with Homeworld have proven to me that I am fighting for a just cause. My greatest regret is attacking you and your allies in the name of rejoining a corrupt regime. I do hope you can forgive any harm I may gave done, Lapis Lazuli."

"Uh…yeah, I get it. I…pretty much did the same thing when I first got out," stuttered Lapis as she felt a twinge of anxiety in her gut.

"I see. Your incarceration no doubt left you paranoid about any potential threat, so acting rashly would be logical. I am grateful, however, to see you have become more like your past, more adventurous self. The same gem that would routinely take the longest route on any mission just to take in more of the scenery."

"Shame I can't remember it…"

"I will make it a prerogative of mine to assist you in restoring your memory once this conflict has ended. Until then, focus on the present and stay vigilant. It is apparent we are facing an uphill battle, but these Crystal Gems have clearly withstood the might of Homeworld before."

Lapis smiled at her confident words, though also looked over and saw Adamite's bulky hand on her shoulder. She felt a brief tingling at the touch until the larger gem walked up to the warp pad, looking to join Garnet for a round of hand-to-hand training. Lapis and Cinnabar followed not long after.

* * *

Amethyst knew she could have been doing dozens of things to help the team or even herself. She could have been keeping Steven on his toes with her unique brand of training. She could have been keeping watch for any signs of Homeworld's next attack. Heck, she could even be cracking jokes and quips to lighten the mood and keep everyone from getting down in the dumps.

So why had she not moved from the spot she had taken once White Pearl left and Garnet confirmed that another attack was imminent? She had asked herself that over and over again and each time the answer left a terrible feeling in her metaphorical stomach.

She was afraid. She was honestly more terrified than she had ever been in her entire life. She had faced literal monsters before, gone toe-to-toe with Homeworld in the past, and even faced her own inner demons and came out better at the end. She had long since accepted she was imperfect, but the last thing she ever wanted to be was a coward.

And yet no matter how hard she tried, she stayed put.

Every argument she made to herself to get up and be productive was met with a bolt of fear. Fear that she would let her family down, fear that all her efforts would be for naught, and fear that the others would chastise her for her weakness. Even when she told herself that last thought was ridiculous, that they would instead encourage her and push her up she could not budge. It was quite a destructive cycle with her pushing herself down further and further only to find more and more reasons to get up and do something about it.

In the end, though, no one disturbed her. They all passed by her either too busy to spare her more than a glance or decided she was capable of settling her own problem. That left Amethyst with plenty of time on her hands to wonder why she felt like there was nothing she could do. It even tempted her to just close her eyes and hope that this would all be over when she opened them again.

* * *

Topaz was honestly impressed with how she was fitting in with the Off-Colors. With Rutile piloting the vessel, Rhodonite acting as an advisor and Fluorite and Pap to work the engine room together, she found herself slipping into the role quite comfortably. She wondered if spending so many years under Aquamarine's comically undersized foot made her crave to be the leader for a change. That and doing all the actual work on their ship while the pint-sized brat merely barked out orders also helped boost her confidence.

Right now the five were gently making a final run of the planet before docking for the day on the beach. Despite her knowing they were flying at breakneck speeds, Topaz found the job oddly relaxing. She especially enjoyed the personalities of her new crew with their quirks and charm quickly making her far more comfortable with them after a day then with anyone from Homeworld after several centuries. She was snapped out of her pleasant daydream by the ship's scanners suddenly going crazy.

"Rutile, what's the problem?" asked Topaz from the captain's chair.

"A small fleet of gem fighters just came into our range!" reported the left twin urgently.

"They'll be in Earth's orbit any second now!" added the right twin with a twinge of panic.

"Oh no, they're here already! There could be as many as twenty of them and we may outpace them, but they'll overwhelm us with numbers!" fretted Rhodonite, though making a fair point. They could only hit so many with their blasters and Topaz knew that there would be larger ships with heavier firepower not long behind them.

"What about the Star Skipper? Couldn't that help?" asked Topaz, only to be met with Fluorite poking her head out of the engine room.

"Too many of them for that. We need to outmaneuver them."

"Look out! Thirty gem fighters and three warships are incoming!" shouted Padparadscha, inadvertently giving away just how many enemies they were facing.

"We need to alert the others! Rutile, set us for an immediate retreat" ordered Topaz, only to find them cut off by several of the fighters. The twins instead had to focus more on getting them out of the enemy fire rather than heading home.

"We need to dodge! The shields can only take so much punishment!" fretted Rhodonite, already hating the situation.

"You don't think one of those warships is Emerald's, do you?" asked the right Rutile, much to Topaz's confusion.

"The gem Lars swiped the ship from. Now she hates us," explained the left, getting the fused captain up to speed.

"But I thought she loved this ship…" muttered Fluorite, making a good point to the other Off-Colors. Emerald may have been relentless in chasing them across the galaxy, but she also loved this vessel with as much of a heart as any of them had. Padparadscha, unfortunately, gave them the answer.

"The fighters are a decoy for us! The warships are descending onto Earth!"

"WHAT?!" panicked the rest of the ship. Rutile checked and found that, indeed, the warships were flying past them and towards the blue planet as they were still evading the hoard of fighters trying to blast them to bits.

"We need to tell the others about this! Doesn't this ship have a communicator?" asked Topaz, only to be met with more bad news from Rhodonite.

"Yes, but the Crystal Gems don't have any devices that can receive communications from this ship. We might as well be stranded out here!"

Topaz racked her brain for a solution, but found herself being distracted as the ship was jeering every which way trying to evade the swarm of ships. She could tell that Rutile was trying to fight back, but was more preoccupied with keeping them in one piece.

"One piece…" muttered the yellow fusion, before hatching an idea, "That's it! We could use the Star Skipper to get one of us back to Earth and warn the others!"

"That…could actually work!" agreed Rhodonite as she felt a weight lift off her shoulders, "Those fighters are specifically looking at us. As long as the scout ship is discreet, we should be able to make it back with no problem."

"Topaz will come up with an idea to save us!" cheered Padparadscha, further bolstering their confidence.

"Alright, then it's settled. So who wants to go then?" asked Topaz. Rutile knew they were needed at the controls, Fluorite simply could not fit in the ship and Padparadscha was far from a skilled flyer. She figured she could split up, but then Rhodonite made a surprising announcement.

"I'll do it."

"Really?" asked both the Rutile twins in unison. The shaky fusion merely stood her ground.

"Let's face it, everyone else here is too important or simply can't fly the ship. I'm not very experienced, but I think Topaz needs to stay together to lead us to the best of her ability. As long as you can get Homeworld's attention, I should be able to make it back undetected."

"I think we can manage that," smirked Rutile as Rhodonite ran off to jump in the scout ship and begin her gambit.

"You think you can distract them long enough to let her get back to the temple?"

Before she could answer, four more fighters began flying at them from all directions. Rutile guided their thrusters as far up as they would allow and nearly caused a four-way collision.

"I think we'll be just fine, Captain Topaz."

And with that, the dogfight was on as Topaz kept a keen eye on the horizon for any additional surprises Homeworld might have up their sleeve while Rutile handled the flying, Pap kept their spirits up and Fluorite made sure everything below deck was in order. Even with the imminent danger, Topaz felt a sense of comfort and hope having such a dedicated crew behind her. It sure beat hearing a microscopic egomaniac bark orders at her while she did all the actual work.

* * *

Back down on Earth, oblivious to the impending danger, Steven was in the middle of a training session with Pearl, Adamite and Cinnabar in the field near where the barn used to be.

With his skills continuing advancing, Pearl felt it was time to test him with something less predictable and the elemental gems provided the perfect opportunity for the boy to learn how to expect the unexpected. His endurance was also leagues beyond when he started as the boy had going for almost half an hour straight and barely showed any signs of slowing down. The goal was for Steven to avoid being cornered by the three for as long as possible. So far he had only been pinned twice and insisted he had the energy to keep going.

The three gems were surrounding Steven, planning to surprise him at any moment. Now that he has shown his skills in actual battle, they had to take the training up a notch and being more sporadic with when and how they were attacking. As such, Cinnabar lobbed several fireballs at him to start things off with no formal warning. Rather than panic or dodge, he summoned his whip and snapped at the flaming projectiles long before they could reach him.

This turned out to be a distraction, though, as Adamite tunneled up to right behind him and made to grab his ankles. Steven looked down in the nick of time and leapt several feet backwards with a single bound, but found himself face-to-face with Pearl charging at him with her spear at the ready. He brought out his own spear and the two began matching each other blow for blow, dodging stabs and blocking with amazing precision. Despite being less experienced, Steven was proving remarkably agile despite his portly build and even managed to get his weapon under Pearl's feet and knocked her to the ground.

That's when Adamite and Cinnabar surprised him by rushing at him from both sides. The boy tried jumping out of the why, but Pearl was one step ahead of him as she pretended to be more out of it than she was. The elemental gems sent rocks and flames up after him as Pearl charged at him with a super-jump of her own. Steven quickly summoned a bubble to protect himself from the rudimental missiles, but was still knocked back as Pearl whacked him down to Earth resulting in him tumbling around in his own bubble.

As soon as he reached the ground and let down his defense, though, a stone hand emerged from the ground and grasped him by the waist.

"Got you," smirked Adamite, pleased to see she was getting better at anticipating her opponents. Pearl and Cinnabar both made a dash for the trapped boy to make him tap out, but Steven had other plans. He flexed his arms, pushing the limits of his superhuman strength. As his two opponents got closer, he finally managed to crack and then break his earthen restraint. He then grabbed two chunks of broken rock and chucked them at the incoming gems, remembering to use any advantage he could get in a fight. Cinnabar got struck in the knee and tumbled while Pearl merely dodged. The two came face to face again with Steven summoning a gauntlet in one hand and his signature shield in the other as Pearl formed her spear once again. The pair clashed with an intensity that would worry anyone unaware that this was a common sparring match. Pearl may have had the better reach and experience, but Steven had better defenses and versatility with his combo of weapons.

It is a shame he was so caught up with Pearl that he did not notice Cinnabar blazing a path behind him with both her arms wreathed in flames. He ended up getting a scorching hug that shocked him out of his fight and made him cry out in pain. He fought the burning around his midsection, though his trademark shirt was not so lucky, and stomped on the gem's foot as hard as he could to free himself.

"Steven!" shouted Pearl as she instantly dropped the act as she saw burns form on both of his arms. Adamite walked up to her long-time companion and glared at her while crossing her arms.

"Heh heh, oops," chuckled a very embarrassed Cinnabar, "Too much?"

Adamite responded by making the fire-starter sink up to her head in the dirt. While that was going on, Pearl was inspecting the nasty burns forming on Steven's forearms.

"And this is why I started packing more supplies. I knew I should have grabbed that defibrillator when I had the chance…" she mumbled to herself as she pulled a vial of pink water from Rose's fountain out of her gem and poured it all over the afflicted areas before it could blister. After only a minute, the boy's arms were as good as new.

"Thanks Pearl! Now let's go again!" the boy assured, but Pearl simply shook her head.

"Steven, I think that's enough for today. But you did an excellent job considering we weren't holding back much. Next time, I'll have to start you on how to incorporate fusion weapons into your repertoire."

"Come on, Pearl, I'm fine! I know I can keep going until-" was all he got out before he suddenly fell on his face, completely out cold. Pearl immediately flipped him on his back and looked him over.

"It appears you were right to stop when you did. He has does not have the energy to stand let alone keep working."

"This isn't right," Pearl fretted, "He doesn't just fall unconscious like this! We need to get him back to the temple!"

Pearl hefted the boy into her arms and dashed towards the warp pad with Adamite close behind. Cinnabar was horrified to see them leave without here.

"Adamite, can I at least be let out? This is starting to itch!"

She was unceremoniously launched out of the ground by a pillar of rock from underneath and landed flat on her face.

"Thank you…" She eventually dusted herself off and made her way back after Pearl and Adamite had already beamed back to home base.

* * *

Not long before the gems warped in, Peridot and Bismuth put the final touches on the brand-new warp pad security system. While rather unorthodox device as a two-foot tall set of metal spires interconnected by conduits at various intervals with three pillaged gem destabilizers sticking out of the top, the duo assured that they could now stop any more unwanted visitors with a press of a remote control Peri had wired up to the device.

The new upgrade, though, was the last matter on everyone's minds as they gathered around an unconscious Steven laying in his bed upstairs.

"You must have really done a number on him with training…" muttered Lapis as she looked down at the now-helpless hybrid.

"He was just fine up until that point! This doesn't make any sense! What could just make him black out like this?" asked Pearl wringing her hands in worry.

"Well, there was that time he got knocked out when we... kidnapped him," admitted Cinnabar with a heavy amount of shame in her voice.

"You said you never laid a finger on him," commented Garnet, remembering the terms of Steven and the gem's agreement from when they were enemies.

"We never harmed him directly. While we were traveling, though, he stumbled on a large cliff and was unconscious when we checked on him. From there I carried him the rest of the way and he was awake by the time you confronted us," informed Adamite who could not ignore a small jolt as she remembered the ticked fusion electrocuting her into submission.

Before the group could piece together this mystery, though, a massive crash came from outside. The entire group left Steven on his bed and rushed outdoors to find the scout ship for the Sun Incinerator half stuck in the sand from a poor landing. Rhodonite, shaking like a leaf, climbed out of the ship's hatch and stumbled onto solid ground.

"Rhodonite, what are you doing here? Where's Topaz and the main ship?" asked Peridot, miffed at the thought that the vessel was damaged on impact.

"W-W-We're under attack! Dozens of H-Homeworld fighters are a-after us and t-this was the only way we could tell you about it!"

"WHAT?!" shouted everyone present, even Garnet. To make matters worse, but she was still stammering and shaking with the even worse news in mind.

"A-A-A-And there are three w-warships heading for the temple! W-We needed to let you know so they sent me!"

Now the group was in a full-blown panic. They rushed the frayed gem inside to the safety of the temple, and noticed that Amethyst was still sitting by the window, watching the waves go by without any sort of care or concern. Bismuth went over to her.

"Hey Amethyst, up and at 'em, let's go!" Despite talking right into her ear, the scrapper did not budge.

"Come on, we can mope around later, we've got a serious problem!" She then pushed Amethyst, but found her fall on her face with no resistance. The now-confused Bismuth flipped her around and noticed that the smaller gem was out for the count, but that quickly faded from her mind when she saw Amethyst's gemstone.

It had no color whatsoever.

"Guys, we got another problem!" shouted Bismuth to get the attention of everyone, panicking inside about how they were going to deal with this on top of the oncoming attack.

**And now, we've got a triple whammy! A Homeworld attack, Steven's down for the count and Amethyst is knocked out too! How will the Crystal Gems get out of this one? Tune in next time, same Gem-story, same Gem-site!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave your questions or comments in review section and here's to the next milesone!**


	30. Unlocking Amethyst

**Time for another trip into the surreal with another round gem mind-scape for Steven! Oh, and some Homeworld ships too...**

There was a time when Steven Universe would have completely lost his mind with all the chaos and tumult that came with ticking off Homeworld. Had this happened to him months ago when he was more or less the tagalong kid of the Crystal Gems, the boy would have been completely horrified at the prospect of an entire armada of troops led by three megalomaniacal tyrants wanting his gem as a war trophy. Nowadays, it merely ticked him off. All he wanted these days was some peace and quiet and yet they insisted on coming after him again and again. They have kidnapped him, threatened his family, have made it clear about wanting Earth destroyed and have clear intentions to do this on top of countless other atrocities they have committed in the past and plan to continue doing in the future.

These were the thoughts going through his head as he laid with his eyes closed, wondering if he really had pushed himself too hard with training and his body just gave up on him. That notion, as well as the passive-aggressive thoughts about where Homeworld could send their next fleet, left him when he finally opened his eyes to a sight even more surreal than the last time he was unconscious.

He quickly learned that he was nowhere near the DeMayo family field anymore as he could see the sky was now stark white, as if all the clouds in the sky formed into one shapeless mass and no gray or shadows to tell them apart. Actually, he could see various gray masses above him, but something about them seemed wrong as looked at any one of them too long gave him a headache. He also noticed that the ground felt bizarre, as he opened and closed his hand and felt rocks, sand and other bits and pieces he could not identify. As he stood on his feet again, the abnormalities grew even stranger.

The entire ground was made of random flooring materials. Rocks, sand, tiles, wood planks, glass shards, carpet squares and countless bits and bobs of trash made up the ground. To make matters weirder all of them were colored a dull gray, like all of them had the life and vibrancy sucked out of them. When Steven looked up, he noticed those bits in the sky were more random objects. Some were so far away there was no way to tell, but others he could clearly make out a few feet away from him. He reached out and picked up an old cell-phone and felt it was fully solid, but also solid gray. When his fingers touched it, though, the case turned a bright red and even turned on displaying a random screensaver. As soon as he dropped it, it was a lifeless piece of gray technology.

_"Well, I'm in someone's head again," _thought Steven to no one in particular, _"And I can already guess who it is…"_

"Hey Steven!" shouted Amethyst as she ran up to him with her arms full of random junk. Much like when Steven grabbed the phone, it was all fully colored compared to the gray mass around them. "Isn't this place great?!"

* * *

The atmosphere of the beach house was, to put it gently, horrible. With both Amethyst and Steven out for the count it only made it that much harder for the Crystal Gems to deal with the impending Homeworld attack. Even with so much going wrong, though, Garnet kept her head on her shoulders.

"Alright Rhodonite, tell us everything you know about this Emerald and the ships she's using."

"W-Well, Emerald is a gem enforcer that's been after us ever since Lars first swiped the Sun Incinerator from her and her guards…"

"That makes perfect sense," remarked Peridot, "Emeralds are what humans would equate to law enforcement. They are vigilant, ruthless peacekeepers who look to apprehend any wrongdoers and maintain order in gem society."

"So… We're being harassed by a space cop?" asked Lapis sardonically, honestly not believing what she was hearing. While her comment did bring some much-needed levity, everyone was quick to get back on track.

"And you've also said that Emerald is very attached to her ship, correct?" asked Adamite.

"Yes, she chased across at least thirty galaxies just to get it back. A-And now she's got a huge squad of fighters to keep them occupied up in space-"

"-While they send the big guns down here with no way to fight back," finished Bismuth, grumbling to herself that the enemy had a pretty sound strategy.

"Alright, so we've established that we're in a disadvantageous position due to our limited options," weighed Pearl, "But we need to also acknowledge what we do know. Rhodonite, what can you tell us about this enemy?"

"Well, aside from Emerald being relentless, she commands a huge warship called a Destiny Destroyer-"

"SHE HAS WHAT?!" screamed Peridot, suddenly sweating and shaking like most of the group have never seen. She proceeded to leap onto Rhodonite on all fours and cling to the fusion's midsection.

"And you're telling me now there's THREE of them?! We need to get out of here before we're all atomized!"

"Peridot, calm down!" ordered Lapis, "What's so bad about these ships?"

"The Destiny Destroyer was still in the prototype stages when I was on Homeworld, but when I heard the specifications of it, my mind was blown. A massive vessel with a crew of over a hundred gems with enough firepower to blow through practically anything that stood in its way! It blew up meteors the size of equal to the size of the statue above the temple just for testing! If Homeworld has those pointed at us, we don't have a chance of matching that kind of power!"

"But I thought that's why you made this force field?" asked Cinnabar.

"While it may have the defensive capabilities to withstand laser fire from common gem fighters, I never tested it for assaults of this caliber…" Peridot visibly deflated when she realized her own mistake.

"The downside of hijacking enemy tech is sometimes you don't know what you're working with," added Bismuth, also kicking herself for overlooking such a critical aspect.

"But that shield was still up after the planet-wide Corrupting Light hit," added Pearl, hoping to raise the morale, "Surely no common weapon would be able to pierce a shield of that strength!" Adamite disagreed.

"I sincerely doubt that. Considering that Cinnabar and I managed to evade such an attack by burrowing underground far enough, I would guess that whatever sent that attack was designed with range over destructive power in mind. If this is an actual weapon with that much tonnage behind it, we are in an even worse position than we realized."

"You're right…" whispered Garnet, who looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"What's the matter Garnet?" asked Pearl.

"If those ships hit… Beach City won't survive even if the shield holds…"

* * *

Steven was more confused than ever. When he did this with Garnet, she was clearly suffering from depression and misery. The otherwise immovable object was starting to crack and almost crumbled right in front of him. He honestly never wanted to consider what might have happened had he not intervened, especially with him being held hostage at the time.

"Amethyst, what's going on? Are you okay?"

"Uh yeah," she answered lackadaisically, "Why? You got your banana jammies in bunch and want to talk it out?"

"I'm asking you that! There must be something wrong with you!"

"You know Steven… There is something wrong." Amethyst suddenly dropped her entire junk pile, returning it all to its grayed-out state.

"Really? What is it?"

"It's a super serious problem that only you and I can tackle together. Will you help me, Steven?"

"Of course! Tell me what it is, and I'll help!"

"I…"

"Yes?"

"Need you…"

"Uh-huh?"

"TO LOOSEN UP!" The purple hooligan fell on her backside from laughing so hard, while Steven just looked at her in confusion.

"Oh and watch this!" Amethyst picked up a handful of scraps from the ground, turning an assortment of colors in her grasp, but with one squeeze of her hand the bits and bobs became a bag of potato chips.

"Whaaa?"

"Awesome, right? This place can be anything you want!"

Just to prove her point, Amethyst looked to the side and made a twenty-foot-tall pile of snow to form out of the field of hodgepodge. She then grabbed several pieces of scrap out of the air and made an old-fashioned wooden sled.

"Come on man! Make yourself something and go nuts!"

* * *

"Garnet, you saw this happening?! Since when?" asked Lapis, possibly missing her cozy home in the mirror for the first time in millennia.

"Just now. And almost every outcome is the same even if the shield holds; Beach City is little more than a crater after the attack is over."

"Then we need to inform everyone in town immediately! I'll call Connie and Greg right now and tell them to start spreading the news and get everyone to evacuate." Pearl brought out her cell phone and began dialing as fast as she could. She would have Mayor Dewey's number, but the man kept sending far too many romantic texts for her liking so he was permanently blocked.

"So now what?" asked Cinnabar, "Do we just run away? I thought we weren't going to let those Homeworld jerks walk all over us!"

"If we must strategically retreat in order to survive, then that is what must be done. We have little chance to retaliate without access to our best weapon," commented Adamite only to immediately be scolded by Lapis.

"You mean we should just run away and let Emerald level the town?! No way am I letting all those people lose their homes! Go ahead and leave if you want, but I'm staying and keeping everyone safe!"

"That's a very admirable thought, but logic dictates that we have little other option if we wish to avoid being potentially disintegrated."

"Logic dictates we should've lost to Homeworld the first time, yet here we are," added Bismuth, "And I know for a fact that Rose would never leave dozens of people to get obliterated by some overpowered upper-crust. We need to buckle down and find some way to survive this without putting everyone in danger." Lapis looked at her and gave a small nod in appreciation.

"Fighting between ourselves is still going to solve nothing, though," added Garnet, "We need to prioritize getting the people of Beach City to safety. Once that's taken care of, we can address how we are going to withstand this attack."

"I've already called Connie and Greg to spread the word and get everyone involved. They should be able to help the mayor handle this," assured Pearl.

* * *

The benefits of living in such a small town like Beach City was that news always traveled fast. If a business failed a health inspection, it took only a day for everyone in town to distance themselves from the place. In the case of a town-wide emergency, it took exactly eighteen minutes to have the entire town assemble on the boardwalk with the news to immediately flee their homes until further notice.

This naturally did not sit well with the usually relaxed population of the town considering the debacle that happened months ago with the spaceship and one of their own recently being abducted.

Mayor Dewey, standing in the back of his old reelection van, was barely keeping the outrage down even with the help of Greg and Connie.

"What do you mean, we all need to flee town?!" cried Kofi Pizza, "We thought this town was safe now that Lars was back!"

"Everyone, just calm down!" yelled Connie, "This is only a temporary thing! The Crystal Gems will handle the situation and then everything will be fine."

"For how long?!" asked Mrs. Barriga who looked already on the verge of a panic attack, "First they kidnap my son and now they want to attack our town?! Maybe they should just surrender to those aliens and save us all the trouble!" That unfortunately appealed to most of the crowd and caused many to start yelling for the Crystal Gems to hand themselves over.

"Now come on guys," assuaged Greg, "Those guys have been saving your bacon for years now, longer than any of us have been alive. We need to calm down and do what they say because they just want people to be safe."

"And how do we know that the gems and these invaders aren't in some sort of alliance?" asked Ronaldo, "Maybe this is all some conspiracy between them and the canned vegetable industry to-"

"SHUT UP, RONALDO!" yelled every single person in the assembly. They might have been filled with delusions and paranoia, but everyone knew better than to take what that boy said to heart.

"Now I understand why everyone is afraid at the moment," assured Mayor Dewey, for once not sweating despite the severity of the situation, "But I for one put my faith in the Crystal Gems. They have never let us down before and if these two, who know that group much better than I do, trust them then so do I."

That actually made the crowd pause and consider his words.

"SO YOU TRUST THEM MORE THAN US?!" shouted Kevin, his normally flippancy causing yet more grief. That got the crowd whipped up again and about ready to charge the van in a frenzy until one voice called out.

"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP?!" shouted Lars, wearing his old Big Donut uniform along with his new skull earrings, as he shouldered his way through the crowd and stepped up to the van.

"Connie, get me one of the gems on the phone." The young girl pulled out her own cell and dialed Pearl. As soon as she picked up, she handed it over to Lars.

"Pearl, it's Lars. What's going on?" He stood there simply absorbing everything she said, completely ignoring the staring crowd. The onlookers, his parents especially, were stunned by his bravado. Those who knew the old Lars knew he would practically be losing his bladder had he spoke in front of a crowd like this before.

"Alright, listen up!" he spoke up after hanging up, "The problem is three giant alien warships that want to blow up the Crystal Gems and they don't care about the collateral damage. They're headed by a psycho named Emerald who chased me across the galaxy to get her ship back. The best thing to do now is stop whining, get a grip and do what you're told unless you want to get vaporized."

While a select few in the crowd, namely Sadie and the boy's parents, were stupefied by his compelling tone the rest fell into a panic. Lars rubbed the bridge of his nose as the citizens of the town all but started a riot.

"You know; I think I would actually rather see Emerald again than deal with this…" he muttered to himself. Mayor Dewey decided it was time to finally speak up.

"Everyone, settle down right now!" he yelled with far more force than anyone, even his own son, had ever heard. For once he had everyone's undivided attention and staring them all straight in the eye.

"I am beyond terrified right now. I've tried running away from my problems or dusting them off or, I'll admit it, pushing the blame onto someone else. But right now, this town does not need a politician. It needs an actual leader, someone who can keep a level head no matter what's coming. Now we can either stay here screaming at each other and getting nothing done, or we can buckle down and head out before the worst happens. Anyone else agree?"

It was slow at first, but the audience began clapping for him. Not the usual polite bout of clapping that was expected in response to the mayor making a public statement, but genuine applause out of respect and admiration. Even Dewey himself could hardly believe his own words, but he simply smiled as the crowd fell away. He could overhear several people making plans to evacuate as soon as possible with Connie eventually leaving with her parents. That left only Greg, Lars and the mayor atop the van on the boardwalk.

"Bill, that was really something," complimented Greg, "Where did all that come from?"

"From you, young man," he looked at Lars, "Your words inspired me like I haven't been in years. It took me back to a time when I was a wide-eyed kid who just wanted to make his hometown an even better place. Thank you."

"A-anytime, s-sir," stuttered Lars, some of his old anxiety returning. He never imagined he could actually move people, but then again he remembered his weeks of time aboard the Sun Incinerator. He kept everyone at their peak no matter how troubling the straits were. He enjoyed a brief reprieve from his captain duties, but now Lars felt ready to do something more productive with his life. While he knew the ship was in good hands with Steven and his friends, he wondered what else he could do to help. For now, though, the boy simply went on his way back to his house to pack up his things in case Emerald decided to level his home.

The boy took a brief moment to chuckle over how insane his life had gotten. A few months ago, his biggest problem was the drudgery of his day job or the pain of public schools. Now he was in life-or-death situations involving psychotic alien rock women. And yet here he was smiling more at this than in all the years of his first-world problems.

The boy walked home, wondering about all the ways he could help once this particular debacle was over. His coat was hanging in his closet for just the occasion.

* * *

Steven had mixed feelings about this situation. While he was grateful that his mental realm was not collapsing around him and Amethyst was not having an episode, he knew something was deeply wrong.

What did not help was how Amethyst seemed dead set on talking about anything except what brought him here. All she kept doing was cracking jokes, making bad puns and sometimes literally pulling shiny objects out of midair to distract him.

"Hey Steven, want to see me eat a bag of chips in ten seconds?"

"Yo Steven, try pushing a screwdriver into a watermelon. It looks super weird!"

"Man, Pearl would be having a heart attack if she saw this!"

Although Steven did have to admit that last one was funny to imagine.

Even still, while he did miss Amethyst's quips and sense of humor with how serious everything had gotten, he knew something was amiss.

After several minutes of pondering to himself on how to best handle the situation, he eventually just tried to play along and let Amethyst open up on her own terms. The problem was that while the gem may have run out of potential distractions in the real world, she had literally infinite resources to keep herself occupied with. One second she was bowling with a giant gumball and copies of _Seventy Hues of Alabaster_ as pins. The next second she was just literally throwing things into the air and making them change into different forms as they fell. The kid all but lost his head when she chucked a bicycle wheel that came down as a bowling ball.

"Dang, man, this place is the best!" she boasted, "No more of that serious junk here. We can just goof off all we want!"

Steven's eyes lit up hearing that. Now he had an idea about the issue.

"Sooo… you don't like how serious everything is now? Why is that?"

"Dude, I think we both know why. Everyone's all scared of Homeworld because 'Oh man, they've got stuff to blow us up with!' Who cares?"

The hostility in her voice did not escape Steven. "So, you're saying you don't care about Homeworld? I thought you wanted to protect Earth."

"What?!" she gasped, "I didn't say that! Of course, I want to save Earth. It's my home for crying out loud!"

"Then why are we just sitting here and doing nothing? We should be back at the temple helping everybody!"

"W-well, when did you start becoming the fun police?!"

"What?!" Steven could tell he was breaking through, but her constant dodging the question was grating on him. He would have to ask Garnet for some tips on mentoring later.

"Man, can you just let me have this?! What's gotten into you?!"

"I have a responsibility now to keep Earth safe, Amethyst, and so do you!"

"Fighting a random gem monster is one thing but fighting an entire war?! That's insane!"

Steven was taken aback by that. "You mean… like the first time?"

"Uh, I wasn't around the first time, remember?! If you all want to run off and take on an entire planet, fine then, but I'm not doing it!"

"Really?! You're just going to abandon everyone and stay in your own head forever?! That's the real insanity!"

"Who are you to tell me what to do?!"

"I'm your friend and your family!" choked Steven as his emotions started to get the better of him, "Please Amethyst, just tell me what you want so we can get out of here!"

"I don't want your help!"

"Why not?!"

"Because it's none of your business!"

Steven had to bite back a groan as his patience started to drop. "Amethyst, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong! You don't want to fight, fine, then you can maybe help out someone in the back! We can find something for you to do if you don't want to be up front."

"I don't want that either! Just drop it already!"

"Not until you give me a straight answer! If you don't want to fight, but you don't want to _not_ fight, then what do you want?"

"I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

The purple gem dropped to her knees. Her eyes were already streaming tears. The white sky above them suddenly turned black and the grayed-out objects around them suddenly became stark white instead before losing all shape and turning into a field of endless paste.

"Amethyst…"

"There…" she whimpered, "Happy now?"

* * *

The Crystal Gems were all on edge now more than ever. After Pearl received a phone call from Lars of all people asking for the details about their crisis with Homeworld, Connie called back not long after and told that her family along with everyone else in Beach City was heading inland away from the oncoming attack.

"Well, at least collateral won't be an issue now," commented Bismuth, trying to look on the bright side of their situation. Garnet decided it was time to move forward.

"Now that people won't get hurt, we need to buff up our defenses any way we can. Lapis, I need you to stay outside and put up the sturdiest water wall you can."

The maritime gem wordlessly flew outside and put up a staggering water wall on the edge of the shore, easily as tall as the temple. An ethereal blue glow entered the house as the sunlight shone through the aquatic barrier.

"Adamite, in case that's not enough, stay outside and send up a rock wall. Also make sure Lapis doesn't get discouraged or upset and remains focused."

"Understood." The green elemental went outside and joined her blue-coated doppelganger.

"Peridot, I want you and Bismuth to ensure the shield is at full capacity. If you can find any way to potentially boost its strength, do it."

"Right!" exclaimed Peridot, eager to have anything to distract her from the looming dread. Her dreadlocked partner in crime followed behind, appreciating that Garnet was doing her best to keep everyone's spirits up.

"Garnet…" muttered Pearl once everyone else was out of earshot, "Do you honestly think we can survive this?"

"We've been through worse," she shrugged, "And besides, I have a hunch Rose would think the same thing."

"Yeah. She would," remembered Pearl, who could practically hear her mentor driving them forward.

That left Rhodonite with little to do but watch over the senseless Steven and Amethyst laying side by side on the former's bed upstairs. She twiddled all four of her thumbs as she felt the minutes crawl by, hoping that her old crew was alright above the atmosphere while her new friends around her could figure out a way to survive Emerald's wrath. She did feel that would be a pretty cruel twist of fate for her to finally get the freedom she desired for so long only to have it taken away a split second later.

When she looked down at Amethyst again, though, she was snapped out of her pessimism.

"Guys, get up here! Something's seriously wrong with your friend!"

Rhodonite had never seen a gem start fading into nothingness before.

**And so next time, it all comes to head. Until then!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave questions or comments in the review section!**


	31. At the Speed of Sound

**And now, the epic conclusion complete with soundtrack!**

Emerald could barely contain her excitement. At long last she would reclaim her precious Sun Incinerator, punish those blasted Off-Colors after such an exhausting chase and now she would crush the last of the rebellion to boot! She could only imagine the rewards White Diamond would bestow onto her for her monumental accomplishment. It was all it took for the colossal captain to literally dance for joy, primarily because she still had a mission to accomplish. She also did not want to give the peridots more to gossip about.

"We are now within range of the rebellion's base," reported one of the peridots manning the guidance systems.

"Splendid! Give me an update on the Sun Incinerator as well," she commanded.

"Seven of our fighters have been shot down, but the formation is being held. They are far too overwhelmed to lend any assistance."

"Perfect! As long as there is no damage to my ship, then everything is going according to plan!"

Many of the other gems on the bridge had to roll their eyes at this. They were eager to keep the ship undamaged from the start, but hearing their superior officer go on and on about it worse than a prosecutor zircon was unbearable. Now they were all excited to finally have this mission over and done with so the one-eyed fanatic would shut her speech port already.

"We have noticed that the rebels have a force-field of some kind surrounding their base. Should we send some saboteurs to deal with it?"

"Please! As if any piece of jury-rigged rebel garbage can withstand the might of these three magnificent ships!" she boasted, somehow glowing with overconfidence despite already being bathed in green light, "I will annihilate that accursed Rose Quartz once and for all and soon have an entire wing of Homeworld ships under my command!"

It was a miracle that none of the other gems on the bridge groaned out loud from her ego-stroking, but they all agreed on one thing. The sooner they blew away that usurper Rose Quartz, the better.

* * *

Steven looked on as Amethyst lay on her hands and knees, tears flowing freely and her making no attempt to stop. She did not even try to push him away or give the classic "Stop looking at me!" line.

It did not help that the landscape around them went from surreal, but possessing a strange charm, to a bleak white field under an inky blackness. When Steven picked up part of the white paste that was now the floor, it was frigid to the touch and felt uncomfortably sticky. He had to physically shake it off his hand before it would let go.

"Amethyst…" he muttered after wiping off his hand, "Why do you think you're going to die?"

"WHY DO YOU THINK?!" she screamed, "There's an entire _galaxy_ full of insane alien amazons who want us all in pieces! How are we supposed to beat that?!"

"Well… Garnet can stay ahead of them with her future vision, Pearl can fight really well, Bismuth and Peri can invent new gadgets to stop them and-"

"We can't, Steven. They'll just keep coming and there's only a dozen of us."

"But that's never stopped us before! We got away from Jasper when she first tried to abduct us, we rescued Dad from that human zoo, we outsmarted that bunch of rubies, AND I literally got out of a trial from Homeworld when I was right in front of two of the diamonds! And since I got back, we've been winning again and again!"

Amethyst seemed to genuinely contemplate his words, her eyes finally lightening as hope seemed to brighten her mood.

"Heh, yeah right," she scoffed, "And how many times can we keep doing this? How many more times are we gonna be in danger before it finally gets better?"

"What? Of course we can get better! Mom did it before and we can do it again!"

"Dude, that was totally different! I may not have been there myself, but I know the odds were different! Rose had hundreds, or maybe _thousands_, of gems on her side. We just now got more than ten members! I suck at math and even I know those are terrible odds."

"…Okay, so maybe it won't be easy…"

"It's impossible!" she shouted, causing ripples to start flowing through the white paste beneath them, "At this point, we're just stalling! How much longer until the diamonds just come down here themselves and snatch you away again?!"

The ripples grew and intensified as Amethyst's fear and loathing came out, the corners of her eyes dotted with tears. Steven could feel that same doubt crushing his heart and he began to shiver against his will as he felt it. All the rage Amethyst felt towards the dictators who wanted to annihilate her home, her family, and herself. He could feel the instinct to run as fast possible overtake his senses.

"Amethyst… I know you're scared…"

"You think I _like _feeling like this?!" she screamed, causing the white quagmire to start forming waves that crashed with a deafening roar.

"I'm useless here, Steven! Fighting one monster at a time was easy, but this is an entire army! They're smart, they've got weapons we can't even understand AND there's a bajillion of them! And it all makes me feel worse!" She started crying again as the waves continued, almost drowning out her voice. What really made Steven's heart go into overtime, though, was a white slimy tendril rise from the floor and wrap itself around Amethyst's foot. She did not resist as it slowly started to pull her under into a murky, stifling abyss.

* * *

The temple was completely silent, a rare sight given the massive increase in its occupancy and its residents. With two of their members out like lights, more of them fighting for their lives against a swarm of spaceships above the stratosphere and the rest simply hoping that they would not get vaporized by psychotic alien cop. Needless to say, they were having a terrible day.

Even Cinnabar, who would have taken over comic relief duty with Amethyst out of the picture, was as morose as could be. She took to watching the unconscious duo upstairs, slowly growing tenser as her fellow scrapper disappeared before her very eyes. She has already lost her entire right leg and now the left was starting to fade as well.

That left the rest of the group downstairs looking past the massive wall of water Lapis was keeping up as their defense. Peridot and Bismuth were at least lucky enough to have their force field generator to occupy their time, but that also came with downsides. Bismuth was more or less just looking for dents to hammer out and her partner was starting to seriously doubt her own capabilities. She quickly learned that the device was already working at maximum power, meaning it would need an external upgrade for it to have any increased resilience.

Pearl, Garnet and Rhodonite were all staring out past the enormous wall of water that loomed over their home. Combining that with the pink bubble that surrounded the building and it at least gave the three a surreal visual to take their minds off of the imminent doom that was constantly growing closer.

Outside of the house was Lapis Lazuli, holding her arms out in order to maintain the colossal barrier between the Homeworld invaders and her home. She felt sweat roll down her face, but she would not move for anything. She was actually grateful for Adamite currently standing beneath her with her arms crossed looking towards the horizon. Her green-coated, burlier doppelganger was as resolute as the stones she controlled, encouraging her with so much certainty that it kept her doubts away.

"How did it come to this?" asked Lapis as the seconds dragged on.

"You are the most equipped to protect the temple with your abilities," replied her counterpart, "The logic is fairly sound."

"Can't you make a stone barrier too?"

"I will raise one if the situation demands it, but the gems would rather not be shrouded in darkness. It would make the tension even worse."

"I guess…"

Adamite glanced up at her past comrade. "I have a hunch that's not what you were asking for."

"Yeah…I was asking about how we got here. How'd our lives get so insane? Of all the lapises… lapii?... out there, why us?"

The stout stone-thrower took pause at this. "I realized something during my time with this group. No Homeworld gem has any control in their duties. We were made as tools, sentient servants expected to act as unquestioning peons. It honestly makes me terrified to realize how many there are without that knowledge."

"Uh, okay that's really cool poetry, but how's that answer my question?"

"I did not question my circumstances for eons and accepted my orders blindly. I believed the diamonds were immaculate beings that had reasoning beyond our comprehension. Now I understand that it was all a lie. Honestly, I originally believed my reunion with you was the only reason I would stay here at all."

"Really? You'd stay…just for me?"

"Correct. We were not merely co-workers in the past. I realize now that Steven was correct when he called us friends, something much more substantial than merely two gems who work side by side. I came to care about you, Lapis, and I continue to do so. I enjoy having companions beside Cinnabar, but even her I'm grateful to have had for all those lonely years. Even if this situation is less than ideal, I am thankful for all the freedom this planet has given me. I'll fight to maintain that freedom for me, and the rest of the Crystal Gems. That includes you too, Lapis Lazuli." The typically stoic gem gave her flying friend a genuine smile. Lapis felt her cheeks warming up.

"A-Adamite…I…"

Lapis was soon taken out of her embarrassment, however, when she noticed three massive beams of green light flying straight towards the temple. She willed as much of her power as possible, pushing the water wall from fifty feet high to one hundred and increasing thickness at the last moment. Adamite kicked up a fifteen-foot high wall of compressed sand for extra protection, but it was not needed. Lapis' struggled with all her might, feeling her strength tested like it has never been before and screaming in agony until her throat was raw. After what felt like holding back the sun itself, the laser finally stopped.

Lapis Lazuli collapsed to the ground, her energy entirely spent blocking one attack. Adamite rushed in to catch the falling gem and ran her into the house.

* * *

"Amethyst, what are you doing?! This isn't the way!" Steven shouted at the gem as her entire leg was now sucked under by the white miasma.

"I don't know what to do, Steven!" shouted Amethyst, her bravado completely gone, "If I fight, I'll die! If I don't fight, then I'm a coward and we all die anyway!"

Droplets of the white paste rose out of the ground into the endless black expanse above them, almost as if it was raining in reverse. As they reached the sky, the droplets formed the shape of massive gem ships looming over them. Hundreds upon hundreds of crafts seemed above them and the rising rain kept climbing.

"There's no end to them," whispered Amethyst in a quiet sob as more tendrils wrapped around her arms to pull her down faster. Steven tried running towards her, but more tendrils emerged and shackled him by his feet.

"Amethyst, calm down! I swear I'll get you out of this!" He tried pushing his feet apart, but the pale restraints would not budge.

"Even if you do, they'll just keep coming. So many of them…"

As if the seemingly endless fleet above them was not foreboding enough, now the paste also coalesced on the ground into the shape of various gem soldiers. Some were familiar, others were unknown, but they the pale look-alikes all bore menacing grins like they could not wait to bash their faces in for fun.

"Amethyst, please! I won't let you give up on yourself!"

She was now buried up to her waist and tears continued running down her face. Steven could feel the crippling terror encroach on his heart and make it beat at a mile a minute.

As he looked above him, he saw the infinite armada of bleached aircrafts. All around him were pale imitations of alien soldiers, all smiling like psychopaths straight out of a horror film. Just below his view was one of his family, practically his sister, ready to throw her life away if it meant escaping the wrath of Homeworld.

As Steven began to shut his eyes in despair, he saw one last figure rise out of the opaque ocean directly behind Amethyst. It was the spitting image of Jasper, grinning with manic glee that her enemies were about to be snuffed out of existence.

* * *

"What?!" shrieked Emerald as she watched their attack somehow not make a dent on the Crystal Gems' base, "How could our attack not have enough firepower to destroy their little hovel?!"

"It appears that they had a second shield that was able to withstand our assault," reported a peridot near her, equally baffled at how they failed to make a dent.

"A positive side effect of our first attack, however, is that it seemed to have depleted the second shield's energy source," answered another peridot, "Meaning that we have still considerably weakened their defenses."

That seemed to pacify Emerald as she closed her eyes and thought out her next move. Underneath her flamboyant exterior and love of hardware was a cut of gem renowned for her cunning and persistence. She was not going to let a single misstep ruin her chance to put her name in the archives of Homeworld history.

"I want all power not used for the ship's thrusters rerouted to the main cannons. Anything that isn't keeping this ship elevated must be put towards the blasters!"

"A-all of it?! Even the shields?"

"Of course! As if those pitiful peons could possibly damage our ships! And relay that order to the other destroyers as well!"

It would be a lengthy process, and of course leave them vulnerable for attack, but with the majority of their fighters holding off the Sun Incinerator Emerald was assured that this next attack would obliterate Rose Quartz once and for all.

* * *

"Oh no! What happened to her?!" shrieked Rhodonite as Adamite carried in the unconscious Lapis.

"She exhausted herself keeping the enemy attack at bay," reported the visibly upset Adamite, her stoicism finally breaking, "I'm afraid there's no way she can hold off another onslaught."

"Well, so much for Turquoise maybe being able to stop this…" grumbled Peridot.

"Even if we used her, could she make it out there in time? Those ships have got other defenses besides the lasers?" asked Bismuth before realizing that she was dragging the mood down ever further.

"Ugh! Can't we do anything here?! We're not just gonna let those uppercrusts walk all over us, right?! Garnet, haven't you seen anything?"

"I have, but most of them aren't good."

"Well that's just great!" shouted Rhodonite, "We crossed several galaxies to get somewhere safe, we actually make it here, and Emerald still beats us! Why can't we ever get a break?!"

"It won't end this way!" reprimanded Pearl, "This is the exact kind of situation Rose faced constantly! Outnumbered, outgunned and outmatched, but we fought on anyway! And if I have to swim to those ships myself and knock out that Emerald, then I will!"

Sure enough, Pearl actually started marching towards the door with a look that screamed she was seriously going to cross miles of ocean in order to take down three warships all on her own. Bismuth, already familiar with that look, grabbed Pearl and hoisted her over her shoulders.

"Pearl, get rid of the crazy eyes! There's no way you can get there in time!" The slender gem was trying to punch and struggle her way out, but Bismuth was far stronger than she was.

Their commotion was broken up, however, when Cinnabar came downstairs hearing all the noise and spotted Lapis lying unconscious on the kitchen island. She literally screamed in horror at the sight.

"What happened to her?! Who did this?!"

"She overexerted herself defending us from a barrage sent by those Homeworld ships," answered a still-frazzled Adamite, "She'll be out of commission for an indefinite period."

Cinnabar dashed upstairs, literally smoking in distress, and grabbed the unconscious Steven off the bed. She shook him like a ragdoll and shouted in his face. "STEVEN, WAKE UP! LAPIS NEEDS YOUR SPIT! HELP HER!"

"Put him down! We shouldn't disturb him!" ordered Garnet, getting met with an intense glare by the pyrokinetic gem.

"I know you're upset, but throttling Steven won't help. He needs to finish his work inside Amethyst's mind before he can of any use to the rest of us."

Adamite walked up with her usual composure restored and got her red-colored comrade to put the boy back where he was. With no alternative, the group all gathered around Steven and Amethyst, hoping that whatever Steven did to Amethyst could help them out of this situation like with Garnet. It was better than looking out of a pink bubble counting the seconds until they get fried to a crisp.

* * *

Amethyst was half buried into the pale gunk that now made up her mental landscape. Steven was tearing at the tendrils that were holding him back as he tried to talk some sense into his catatonic friend. The visage of Jasper leered at him, her cruel features in perfect detail along with hundreds of other maniacal enemies. The black sky was now flooded with massive white ships ready to bomb them into nothingness.

"Amethyst, snap out of it! This isn't like you!"

She had completely stopped talking, her eyes shut as tears poured out of them. Steven could feel the despair radiating out of her. She was utterly convinced that if she fought, Homeworld would kill her without a second thought. If she ran away, she was letting down her family, her home, and herself. It was a lose-lose situation to her with no way out.

The boy was wracking his brain trying to find something, anything that would bring her back to her senses. As he looked at the pale replica of their old foe, he felt something else. A twinge of anger that helped him clear his head.

That's when the answer came to him.

"Okay then, so you want to let them win?"

Amethyst finally opened her eyes and choked out a reply. "What?"

"You want Homeworld to blow up Earth? Is that what you want to happen?"

"Of course not! Who would want that?!"

"Well, if you give up, that's what's going to happen!"

"But how can I help?! I'm-"

"A Crystal Gem! Your job is to protect the Earth, not let it get invaded! Is that what Mom would want?"

"Heck no!" Amethyst did not realize that she stopped sinking. All the copies of Homeworld gems looked confused at Steven's words.

"Okay, so there's more of them then us, but so what? There were tons of those corrupted gem monsters, but we made it out alright! Jasper said we couldn't beat her, but we did! Twice! Those rubies thought we would be easy pickings, but we sent them running! That pearl of White Diamond treated us like we were barely a threat, but we showed her wrong!"

The gem ships in the sky began to literally melt at his encouragement. Many of the replica invaders did the same as Amethyst began rising out of the ground.

"And you're not alone either! We'll all work to protect each other! Pearl, Garnet, Bismuth, Peridot, Lapis, Topaz, the Off-Colors, Adamite, Cinnabar, we're all in this together!"

As he spoke their names, each of the gems rose out of the white expanse in full color. All of them bore a kind, yet confident smile as they made a circle around the crumbling mass of enemies.

"I'm scared too, Amethyst. We all are. But we're all going to keep fighting until the day we don't have to worry about Homeworld anymore. Don't you want to see that?" He held out his hand as she was finally back on her own two feet.

Amethyst took his hand. The second she did, the ring of Crystal Gems around them started glowing with a brilliant light. The black and white expanse, along with the horde of invaders, was destroyed in the magnificent flash. When they could see again, all of them were in space, floating serenely miles above the planet they were sworn to protect.

There was one enemy left, however. Jasper, also back to her original coloring, was floating along them. Instead of her usual smugness, however, she looked positively terrified as she stared down the Crystal Gems. Amethyst walked out of the circle and faced the fellow Earth-born gem. Jasper towered over her, yet the orange bruiser took a step back as Amethyst came closer. The purple gem bore her typical smirk, summoned her whip, and leapt forward. Her enemy splattered into white particles with a single stroke.

"Bring it on."

* * *

The Crystal Gems continued their vigil over their unconscious friends, Lapis being brought up next to them. The dread in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Amethyst was literally half the gem she used to be as her entire lower half and one of her arms had vanished.

Their stares were broken when a blinding purple light emerged from Amethyst's gray gem. Her body began to rise into the air as she reformed. Once the glaring light stopped, the gems saw the purple scrapper looking no worse for wear along with a once-again conscious Steven.

"Hey dweebs! What did I miss?" asked the gem cheekily. She was immediately met with a round of cheers and hugs from her family as they welcomed her back.

Adamite quickly cut the celebration short. "While I am grateful that you are back in commission, I believe we still have the matter of our adversaries?"

"Wha-?" groaned Amethyst.

"The gem that chased Lars and his gang from here to Homeworld has three giant enemy vessels pointing at us," filled in Peridot, "It is only a matter of time before they launch a laser attack that not only destroys us, but also wipes out Beach City as well."

Amethyst just walked downstairs like she barely registered what she said.

"And just where do you think you're going?" asked Pearl.

"Uh, going to stop that freaky gem and her death beam? Duh!"

"That's insane!" remarked Rhodonite, "They're miles away over the ocean and who knows how long it'll be before Topaz and the ship get back?"

"Hey Peri, you know how these ships work, right?"

"Well…I did see the schematics at one point, so I should have a fair grasp of its layout. Why do you ask?"

"Come outside with me."

The miniature techie did and followed Amethyst outside the force field. The others watched them from the windows.

"What does she think she's doing?!" whispered Rhodonite.

"Wait for it…" said Steven with evident glee in his voice.

"Now get on my back," ordered Amethyst.

"Excuse you?!" gasped Peridot.

"Relax, perv, it's nothing weird. Just hop on my back like I'm carrying you somewhere."

"You have officially lost your mind," grumbled the scientist as she followed Amethyst's demand. The purple gem lowered herself into a running start position.

"What are planning to do? Run across water?!"

(Cue Epic Theme Song: Rooftop Run Day from Sonic Unleashed)

"Yep!"

And with that, Amethyst shot off like a rocket, running so fast she left an actual sonic boom in her wake that rocked the house to its foundation. The other Crystal Gems were suitably floored, but Amethyst ignored the priceless looks on their faces.

Amethyst laughed and hollered as she tore across the water, leaving a massive trail in her wake. She soon lost site of the coastline, but she did not care. The wind rushing past her as she dashed forward at thousands of miles per hour was the greatest rush of her life.

"HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" shouted Peridot as she clung for dear life.

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT IT'S AWESOOOOOOOOOOME!" screamed Amethyst in reply as she still ran, her feet a literal blur as she defied all physics and treated the ocean like it was one enormous road.

Soon after, barely a minute after they left the house, Amethyst caught sight of three massive green warships hovering over the ocean.

"Hey Peri, where's the best place to get on?"

"GET US ONTO ONE OF THE PRONGS BEHIND THE MAIN SHIP!"

Amethyst was soon directly under the middle ship of the three and pulled out her whip, grapping onto one of the prongs past the main body. As she let Peridot catch her bearing, Amethyst looked at how huge the vessel was. It was easily on par with the ship Jasper and Peridot came to Earth in months ago.

"Okay…" wheezed Peridot, "Now let me…Open the door…And then what do we do?"

"Get to the bridge, smash it up, maybe punch the boss in the face, and then run home! Easy!"

"You're going…to take down _three_ gigantic warships…just like that?!"

"Why not? We've done crazier stuff!"

Once Peridot got her bearings back, she used her ferrokinesis to rip open the door that was typically used for maintenance. Amethyst then placed Peri back onto her back and dashed inside, running down the corridors in mere seconds.

"Halt, intruders!" shouted a pair of topazes in front of them. The two bulky gems made a living roadblock and raised their staffs to impede them.

"Yeeeahhhh…No," replied Amethyst as simply leapt above them with the same frightening speed and left the yellow guards gaping as she left them in the dust.

That was the same for every gem they passed on the ship. Some she just vaulted right over like they were hurdles. Some she literally blew over with the momentum her speed generated. Others she avoided by somehow running on the walls and ceiling of the ship as they made their way onto the upper levels, the supersonic gem never once hitting a wall or stumbling.

"THIS DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" shouted Peridot as they neared the bridge. Half a dozen large, intimidating gems stood in their way.

"Maybe not, but I know it's working!" Amethyst went into her spin dash and, with the impossible velocity she was moving at, bowled through all of the guards like they were nothing and burst through the doors.

"WHAT THE-?!" exclaimed Emerald, "How did you get on board?!"

"The shields' power has been rerouted towards the laser cannon, remember?" remarked one peridot.

"The same goes for the onboard security system!" remarked another, clearly enjoying that her boss was having a minor meltdown after putting up with her arrogance.

"Fine then! You think you can commandeer this ship from me?! I'll shatter you myself and present your shards to the Diamond Authority to get my promotion!" Emerald's gem glowed as she pulled an enormous set of nunchaku from her eye. All twelve of the enemy peridots either summoned a handheld gem destabilizer or turned their limb enhancers into concussive energy blasters.

"Uh, Amethyst, what do we do now?!" panicked Peridot as she was surrounded.

"You get to the controls and sabotage these ships! I'm going to kick butt!"

Emerald scoffed at the idea as two peridots rushed at her, but in a split-second Amethyst was behind them.

"Oh, by the way, I have super speed now! This is gonna be fun!"

She pulled out her whip and flogged the two so hard that they were sent flying out the door and landed on top of the pile of guards outside.

Another pair tried blasting the purple speedster, but Amethyst was right next to the in a flash and tied them both up in her weapon.

"How is this even remotely possible?!" shouted one of the incapacitated gems.

"You're a defective soldier! We should beat you easily!" insulted the other tangled gem.

"Really?" joked Amethyst as she started literally running circles around the remains of Emerald's troops, "If I'm broken, how come you're the one whose tied up?"

As she ran, Amethyst would lash out with either her whip or her fist, her strikes all hitting with obscene strength thanks to the momentum her speed gave her. The enemy peridots went from confident to terrified in an instant. To them she was a violet streak that they could not even see properly, much less fight back against. It did not take long before every single peridot was either sprawled out on the floor or poofed.

"Alright, boss lady, you're next!" she smirked at Emerald, who was left miraculously untouched by her assault.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" Emerald swung her nunchaku and dented one of the consoles, but Amethyst was already behind her.

"Girl, you should get a new catchphrase. That one will get old real fast."

Emerald just growled and swung again, but Amethyst once again dodged so fast her eye could not register it. It was if she was teleporting rather than running. All the while Amethyst made jokes at the captain's expense, making her swings even less accurate.

"Did you get stuck with that hair? I almost sorry for you!"

"Ooh, look at big bad Emerald! First a teenager beats her, and now a runt!"

"Did anyone ever tell you your voice sounds like a drag queen?"

"STAND STILL!" ordered Emerald, her patience long gone.

"If you say so…"

Amethyst actually obeyed as Emerald wound up another swing, this one with all the power she could muster, only for Amethyst to wrap her whip around the titanic gem's wrist. She then pulled her forward, making her lose her balance and drop her weapon.

"You're not very good at fighting, are you?"

"I am among the most elite starship pilots of the Gem Empire! You are lowly soldier who wasn't even made right! I am your superior in every conceivable way! I will hunt you all down to the edge of universe if I have to!"

"Uh-huh, yeah that's great…" mumbled Amethyst as she picked her teeth, half-listening to the captain's boasts, "Hey Peri, you done with messing the ship up yet?"

"Affirmative!"

Emerald audibly choked hearing that. She was so preoccupied with Amethyst that she completely forgot the other intruder on board!

"What did you to my ship?!" screamed the captain, fearing that she would lose this vessel like her precious Sun Incinerator.

"You're the bigger gem here, figure it out for yourself!" snarked Peridot, causing Amethyst to laugh as she once again placed her fellow Crystal Gem on her back.

"See ya later, loser!" taunted Amethyst as she leapt straight out of the glass separating the bridge from the outside like it was not even there. She cackled as loud as she could until Emerald was out of earshot.

The captain's rage was at an all-time high. She thought that infernal Captain Lars was bad, but this?! Getting her ship trashed by a single peridot and a _defective_ quartz?! It would be the end of her career if the diamonds got word of it. She turned on the controls and ran diagnostics, looking for whatever sabotage the intruders did, but found nothing. She could only laugh as the readings showed that the power rerouting was complete, and the supercharged lasers were primed to fire at the rebel base!

Emerald laughed hysterically, thinking that she still had the upper hand. "I told you I was superior gem, rebel slime! You accomplished nothing! Prepare to be annihilated!" She ordered the lasers to fire…

…And the back half of her ship went up in a massive explosion! To make matters worse, both of the other destiny destroyers suffered the same fate, quickly losing altitude as the propulsion systems were utterly destroyed.

"What?! How?!" Emerald shouted in horror, having no choice but to abandon ship and run to her personal escape pod. She ran past all the other gems scrambling to the escape pod bay, easily outpacing them thanks to her immense height. As she entered her pod and set the coordinates for the nearest gem colony, she released the rest of her rage into one skyward scream.

"CURSE YOU, CRYSTAL GEMS! I'LL BE BAAAAAAAACK!" Her pod took off as her beloved fleet began sinking into the ocean, about fifty other pods trailing behind carrying all the survivors of their failed mission. As they left Earth orbit, the remaining gem fighters that accompanied them realized the mission had failed and quickly retreated.

* * *

When Amethyst and Peridot returned to the beach, they found the entire group cheering for their return. Steven tackled the duo in a hug the second they reached the sand with everyone else, even the just-revived Lapis, in awe of their accomplishment.

"You made three massive warships EXPLODE?! Well, if there was any way you two would do it…" remarked Pearl, her sarcasm not cancelling the admiration in her voice.

"I knew we'd come out of that alright," sighed Garnet, pleased at how the future turned out far brighter than she could have hoped.

"DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!" cheered Cinnabar, eager to see another gigantic fireball that can be seen for miles.

"See? I told you we'd all be here for you!" chuckled Steven.

"Yeah…it might get tough, but we're gonna show Homeworld whose boss!"

That got another round of cheers from the Crystal Gems. The Off-Colors returned a few minutes later, their ship only slightly worse for wear. With all of them together again, the group headed inside to celebrate taking one more step towards keeping the Earth safe and sound.

**And so, after all that chaos we now have a super speedy Amethyst, Emerald blasting off again and the city is saved! Next time we some human characters back into the story!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	32. A New Perspective

**So with Emerald's little fleet dealt with, it's time for some lighter fare once again...Except for White Diamond.**

It was a quick process to bring back the population of Beach City, given that the entire town consisted of maybe one hundred people. Instead of the riotous frenzy that almost broke out when they were asked to leave, many of the citizens were grateful for the protection of the Crystal Gems. Several people even made the effort to personally thank the group for their hard work! Sadie dropped by with a box of Steven's favorite donuts, the entire Pizza family made a trip to share their appreciation, and even Onion gave Steven a solid thumbs-up before going off to undoubtedly do something illegal.

One person that was less than pleased, however, was Connie. She made this abundantly clear after the first one-on-one sword lesson she'd had with Pearl in weeks.

"Thanks again for being so understanding," thanked the slender sensei as they warped into the temple, "I know with all Steven's been through I haven't had much time for you but-"

"Hey, it's okay! Big battles, new team members, crazy stuff, I'm used to it! By the way, do you know where Steven is?"

"He was out on a run, but he should be back any minute now. See you next week?"

"Sure thing! Bye, Pearl!"

And sure enough, the man of the hour returned with a light coat of sweat on him.

"Oh, hey Connie!" he greeted as he drank some water, "Haven't seen you in a while, what's going on?"

"Oh, you know, just finished a lesson with Pearl since she had some free time…"

"Yeah, she's been really focusing on me. Sorry if that meant she had to ignore you."

"It's alright, you need it more than me. While I'm here, though, can I ask you something?"

"Sure!"

"Remember when I almost moved out of Beach City and you stopped me?"

"Uh huh!"

"Do you remember why I got so upset?"

"It was because I went to Homeworld and…left you…behind…"

"Yeeeahhhh…" She crossed her arms and stared at him as he put the pieces together.

"You're really mad at me."

"Yep."

"Are you gonna slap me again?" He winced at the thought.

"No, because I do understand that you've been in life-or-death situations and you had no control over them."

"Soooo…what do you want?"

"What I want is for you to _include_ me, Steven! You got kidnapped by rogue gems! You had an entire _battle _with Homeworld! You even had one of the Diamonds try blowing you up with spaceships and never once did you think to tell me about it!"

"Well…I just don't want you to get hurt and-"

"On the first day we met, we fought a giant worm monster! We fought a bunch of those freaky gem mutants at the hospital! We fought _Jasper_, for crying out loud! I've been involved in gem stuff before, so why won't you let me help!"

"Now hold it," interjected Garnet, having observed their entire conversation, "Connie, it's not that Steven doesn't trust you. He cares for you to the point where he doesn't want you put in danger."

"That's right, Connie! I know you can fight, you're really great at it, but I still don't want you throwing yourself into fights just because you want to fight. Okay?"

"Okay…" she took in several deep breaths to steady her thoughts before speaking again.

"So if I can prove to you that I can handle myself, then will you feel more comfortable letting me help?"

"Yeah, that would help!"

"Cool! Then let's fight!"

"What?!" gasped Steven, unsure if he heard her right.

"You and me. I haven't seen all of your training either, so I want to know you're a capable fighter too, plus you get to see how far I've come!"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea…" mused Garnet.

"What?! You're serious?" asked Steven, bewildered by her decision.

"Steven, you've fought the other gems so often that it's getting to be less effective. Connie can provide a fresh challenge for you."

"Well maybe…but-"

"Pearl will be watching over you the entire time. You know she'll intervene long before something goes wrong."

"You're right. Connie, are you sure about this?"

"Yes! I want to show you that I'm not some defenseless kid! I can be a Crystal Gem too, even if I'm a human!"

"Then it's settled," finished Garnet, "I'll let Pearl know while you two get ready."

* * *

Word of Steven and Connie's sparring match quickly spread through the temple until every Crystal Gem decided to drop what they were doing and watch. This also gave Connie a chance to meet all the new arrivals. Bismuth was pleased to meet the latest wielder of her magnum opus, Cinnabar and Rutile were as excitable as ever to meet a new face, Topaz and Rhodonite was nervous, but welcoming nonetheless and Padparadscha and Fluorite were pleasant with their greetings per the norm. The only newcomer that rubbed her the wrong way was Adamite, who made it clear she was highly skeptical that a human, and one still developing at that, could be as useful as she claimed.

The stony gem's doubts only strengthened Connie's resolve, making her determination to prove her skills even stronger. Pearl agreed to have the match at the former site of the barn, since they wanted to ensure there was enough space for the two to move freely. Connie also appreciated the change of scenery since she felt it was necessary for her to learn how to use the battlefield to her advantage.

Steven, meanwhile, was standing perfectly still and resisting the urge to wet his pants.

The boy had sparred with Connie in the past, but that was long before his basic physical abilities had started to eclipse normal human standards. He knew he could cut loose with the Crystal Gems since they were hardened warriors who could just reform if anything too damaging happened. That was not a luxury he had with Connie. One false move could mean seriously hurting his best friend.

"Steven, you should loosen up," advised Pearl, "Connie's going through her warm-ups so why aren't you?"

"I, uh, well…"

"I understand your doubts, Steven, but you need to give Connie some credit. The girl isn't what I'd call a greenhorn, so you shouldn't worry about her being banged up. Alright?"

"Okay, Pearl."

With her mission accomplished, the svelte moderator walked until she was directly between the two. She beckoned them both forward so the spar could begin.

"Now, while I'm sure you're both aware this is not a real battle, you should also know that you must give your best effort. To hold back your abilities too much is a disservice to yourself and your opposite since this exercise is to not only gauge your own abilities, but to become more familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses."

As Pearl continued about the importance of cohesion and battle tactics and whatnot, the newer arrivals were shocked by her knowledge in this field. Many had heard whispers of the rogue pearl who defied her master and became one of the most notorious rebels. Some were impressed with her tenacity, others now knew to never get on Pearl's bad side. Cinnabar took special note to be more careful with her fireball juggling lest she face the white gem's wrath.

"Are you both ready?"

Steven summoned his shield. Connie raised her wooden sword. Both of them were poised to strike.

"Begin!"

Connie made the first move and charged forward. She made swing and swing, but all of them were blocked by Steven's shield. Even when she tried to move around his defense, the boy followed her movements perfectly.

"Wow, look at her go!" admired both halves of Rutile as they watched Connie's impressive offense.

"He's pretty tough too, trust me," warned Bismuth as Steven parried every strike.

Eventually the two broke up with Connie looking to catch her breath. Steven had not even broken a sweat.

"Man…You really have been getting better…" admitted the sword-wielding girl as she regained her stamina.

"Yeah, I hope it's not too much for you," apologized Steven.

"Really?! You're still holding back?! Pearl just said not to!"

"But I-"

"Steven, trust me, I can handle it. Don't restrain yourself!"

"O-Okay…"

Now Steven made the first move, charging at her with speed that clashed with his portly physique. He summoned his spear as he ran and quickly began swiping at her feet and landing several blows while she blocked with all her effort. Eventually Connie got the same idea and managed to trip him up, but the boy simply leaped several feet into the air.

As he came back down, he summoned his gauntlets and leapt into action once again. When Connie managed to block one punch, her entire body rattled from the impact. After that she focused solely on dodging, growing genuinely worried when his hits came so close that she could feel the force radiating off of them.

"That human girl is hopelessly outmatched," droned Adamite, "How can she possibly see herself as remotely ready for combat?"

"Connie may not be the strongest, but she's brave and smart! Don't look down on her," admonished Lapis.

As the duel went on, Steven went to his bare hands. Even without his huge gauntlets, his hits still packed a wallop. The fighting friends dodged and weaved with startling accuracy although it was clear Connie was much closer to exhaustion. She could not tell if it was the lack of practice with a partner or the realization of just how much Steven had improved, but she was quickly getting overwhelmed.

Once again the two broke off from each other and spent several seconds getting reoriented. When they charged at each other, both of them looked as determined as could be. The audience could tell that this would be the final clash.

Connie let Steven take the offensive and blocked every attack by his spear with her blade. She knew now that he was definitely her superior in terms of physical strength and versatility, but she her own advantage. When Steven tried to jab her midsection with the butt of his weapon, she instead danced around it and landed a blow to his torso.

This caught the half-gem off-guard and left him open for her to strike him again. Now Steven was on the defensive as Connie flew from one blow to the next, landing hit after hit as he struggled to even follow her movements let alone react in time.

"Man, she doesn't quit," admired Bismuth, "She really must be Pearl's student."

"A considerable effort given her physiology," remarked Peridot, "Given that she can't overpower Steven, she opted to rely on agility and deception to gain the upper-hand. It explains how she managed to cut off my Internet access…"

"How'd that happen?" asked Topaz.

"It involved Pumpkin needing a bath, hedge-trimmers, my old tractor, and several rutabagas. Don't bring it up around her."

Meanwhile, the duel was winding down as Steven and Connie were reaching their limits. The continued strain of their back-and-forth was showing as each of them got more and more sluggish. The two were finally equals as Steven's enhanced power met Connie's superior strategy blow for blow, neither of them landing a hit on each other. The former, however, landed the final strike when he pulled out his whip.

Connie readied herself, planning to get in close to deprive the range advantage of his weapon, but was surprised when he instead wrapped the whip around her hand holding the sword. With one hard jerk, Connie was disarmed and quickly trapped as Steven moved on top of her and pinned her down.

"So…" gasped Connie as she got her breath under control, "You…Got me…Nice going…"

"You…Were pretty good…too," complimented Steven as exhaustion came over him, "I…was wrong…You can really fight…"

"Thanks, but…I'm still sorry…"

"About…What?"

"All that complaining…But you were right…I'm not up to your level yet…I need to work harder…"

"Yeah, but you're still…Really good…I'm sorry I thought…You were in trouble…"

"Well, I most certainly agree you both have come a long way!" interceded Pearl. She handed the two water bottles while the rest of the audience applauded, thoroughly impressed with their efforts.

"Now then, I do agree that you both need more fine-tuning to your abilities. Connie could use more physical conditioning to increase her dexterity and stamina and Steven can shift his training to give more finesse and strategy. This is exactly what I wanted you both to get out of this exercise!"

"Thanks," they both replied as the laid down in the grass and let their bodies recharge. Tuckered out as they were, the best buds smiled know that not only could they hold their own but they would always a capable friend behind them.

"Now, with all that work done for today, relax until tomorrow so we can begin your cross-training in earnest."

* * *

"So…that's your report?" asked White Diamond, all but drilling into the pitiful-looking gem beneath her with her gaze.

"Y-Y-Yes, White Diamond…" stuttered Emerald, her usual pomposity gone, "T-The mission was a-a-a total failure."

"And according to this, all three of the destroyers under your command were obliterated…by a single defective quartz soldier who somehow possessed impossible agility and a single peridot who sabotaged the ship right next to you."

Emerald could only nod. She was just waiting for the moment the grand matriarch sentenced her to shattering.

"…You are dismissed. Report to Yellow Diamond so she may give her jurisdiction."

The one-eyed captain could not believe it, but hastily put herself together.

"Understood, White Diamond!"

"Oh, but before you leave…"

As the green gem turned around, White shot a searing beam of energy from her eyes straight at her. Instead of inserting her influence into her, however, it was purely designed to cause immense pain. Emerald screamed and cried as her entire form was wracked with agony, so much so that she almost wished for that order to be shattered. She had no idea how long her torture went on for, but the diamond eventually decided she had enough.

"That is for personally humiliating me with your failure," she spoke serenely, "And I will personally ensure you will feel _far worse _if you make such a blunder again. Am I understood?"

Emerald could only nod, still trembling from her torment. White Pearl grimaced in disgust as she left despite being a fraction of the captain's size.

"My Diamond, do you have any retaliation for the Rose Quartz in mind?"

"I will need time to contemplate on that, Pearl. While I do that, report to Yellow and Blue about the…_failure _of this operation."

"At once, My Diamond." With that, the uncanny pearl left the chamber and White was left alone with her thoughts. She felt immense rage and scorn at being rebuked by a group of disorderly rebels, but she quelled her emotion so her immaculate logic could work its magic.

_"We lost three destiny destroyers, sixteen star screamers, and over one-hundred gems in this debacle, but that is insignificant in the grand scheme of my domain. What confuses me is how?"_

If it were not for lack of evidence to the contrary, she would not have believed Emerald's report about the situation.

_"A rouge peridot rerouted all the power from the main blasters to the engines so they would explode upon ignition, so at least the destruction of her fleet is understandable…But that quartz…"_

That was what stuck out to the matriarch the most. A rogue quartz, a _defective _quartz at that, somehow spontaneously gained the ability that enabled her to run at sonic speeds? She had hundreds of words to describe imperfect gems and while they were certainly horrific and needing to be eradicated, never had one become such a threat.

_"Then again, Rose Quartz herself is the greatest defect of all. That insubordinate, despicable, blasphemous, horrendous, pernicious abomination is the antithesis to my vision for this universe! And she did all of this for some unremarkable planet, making her even more baffling!"_

Amidst the searing hatred that stewed in her mind, an idea came.

_"That planet…Earth. Could that be the answer? A planet with properties that could actively modify and mutate gems into something different? That is a terrifying thought…This demands immediate investigation."_

White wondered how she could gain information about the world without launching another full-scale attack, until she recalled a successful deception they pulled over the rebels some time ago. It had seemed truly inconsequential at first, nothing more than depriving their numbers and a possible ransom situation that could utilized later, but now it piqued her interest for a different reason.

She brought up the information about the bizarre gems kept in bubbles within Rose's headquarters and was pleased to see they had only been held in captivity instead of shattered on sight. She grinned as she realized these corrupted gems could be the key to gaining insight about the rebellion and bring her one step closer to finally eliminating her greatest enemy.

**And, like the show this is based on, something trivial comes back into the story! What will become of the corrupted gems and White Diamond? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	33. Experimentation

**And it's only now I realize I've left someone else out of the story: Stevonnie! Let's fix that, shall we?**

The days quickly went by for the Crystal Gems as Steven and Connie dug into their shared training regimen in earnest. While the former spent most of his time split among the three looking to learn the finer points of each weapon, plus beginning his foray into fusion weapons, the latter spent her time with Garnet getting into shape. By the end of the first day, she was huffing for hours and secretly thanking her mom for never letting her anywhere near junk food for so many years.

With the main trio occupied with teaching the kids, many of the other members found ways to refine their skills. The topazes, for starters, decided to start taking advantage of their newfound freedom. It was a rare moment to see the pair not snuggling, romancing or in any way fawning over each other now that they did not have the constant supervision of Homeworld over them. Outside of one incident that involved them learning the phrase "public displays of affection" and got a stern warning from a police officer to tone down the public canoodling, they were right as rain.

The rest of the Off-Colors spent their time trying to find ways they could be of use to the group outside of the Sun Incinerator. Padparadscha was fairly content with simply keeping the temple tidy since with so many new residents, the place could use an extra set of hands to help organize and spruce up everything. Pearl was immensely grateful for the help with her spending so much more of her time training others.

Speaking of training, Rhodonite went up to Garnet one day and insisted she wanted to learn how to fight as a warrior on the battlefield instead of from inside a cockpit.

"That's an unusual request," replied the more confident fusion, "That ship needs an engineer and even Peridot's not as familiar with it as you."

"Maybe, but…" fretted Rhodonite, "When I was stuck down here while everyone else was in space, I felt completely helpless. It reminded me of how I felt back on Homeworld, constantly running from the Diamond Authority."

"Fair enough, you hate feeling weak. And you think fighting will let you defend your identity."

"Exactly! I spent so long running that I thought it was all I was good for! Sometimes…in the beginning I wondered if it would be easier to give up. But then I thought about never being together again, and I kept going every time. The one thing I was confident in was that I never want Ruby and Pearl to be apart ever again."

Garnet merely placed a hand on Rhodonite's shoulder and removed her shades with the other one. The former's three eyes were shining with pride as they met with the latter's four.

"Well then, let's get started."

The kids thus got some much-needed relief from the future-seeing fusion's training as she turned Rhodonite into a personal protégé. She and her pupil quickly learned that the fusion of a ruby's arm bracer and a pearl's spear was, of all things, a fencing saber. This meant that Pearl was called upon for her swordsmanship to help the fidgety fusion become a worthy combatant.

Much to Rhodonite's own surprise, she was an adept learner when she actually put her mind to it and by the end of the week she went from nearly helpless on the battlefield to being able to at least hold her own against Pearl in a spar. Once they were finished for the day, however, Garnet suddenly had an idea. She approached Steven and Connie as they got back from their morning jog on the patio and gave them a rather bizarre request.

"You want us to spar as Stevonnie?" asked Connie, unsure if she heard that right.

"Considering how far you've both come individually, I think it'd be great to gauge your ability when fused!" remarked Pearl, excited at the prospect. Garnet was also smiling in anticipation upon seeing their fusion's potential.

Amethyst, literally dashing up from nowhere, looked up at them from the sand and added her two cents.

"Aw, heck yeah, I wanna fight Stevonnie! I bet I'd finally get a good workout since Cinnabar can't keep up with me anymore."

The arsonist gem did not take kindly to that remark and tackled Amethyst to the ground from under the patio.

"Take that back, you cheating chump!"

"Never!" As soon as she got free, Amethyst took off and was miles away.

"…Were you really waiting under the porch just so you could ambush her?" asked a very perplexed Connie.

"Yeah, but I had company!"

"Missed her again, huh?" guessed Lapis, chuckling at her red counterpart's antics. Cinnabar responded by blowing a raspberry in her face.

"Well, now that your little mission is done, could you leave me in peace?!" griped Peridot, having been dragged there by Lapis against her will, "I'd like to get back to my research!"

"She means watching viral videos of people making insane things for fun."

"Same difference, Garnet! But, on the subject of Stevonnie, I too am curious to see what the sum of your parts could accomplish now that you've both become more experienced."

"Well, it has been a while since we fused, so why not?" admitted Steven, his own curiosity piqued along with all the others. Once again, word spread fast about the prospect of Steven and Connie fighting as a fusion which elicited one of two reactions; a pleasant anticipation of just what these two could do put together or complete confusion at the prospect of any gem, even the likes of Steven, fusing with an organic being. Then again, there was Fluorite who seemed oddly at peace with the whole situation and wondered if she could do the same. Garnet sadly had to tell her that unless she spontaneously gained human DNA then her pool of potential partners was restricted to other gems.

This one again got the entire household's attention and were once again brought to the DeMayo family field to watch the occasion. The only noticeable absence from this bout, and the previous occasion to boot, was Greg. While Steven was surprised that his dad was not picking up any calls or visiting, the boy just wrote it off as him doing important rich-person business-type things and that he will be back around the second he can make it.

In the meantime, though, all eyes were on Steven and Connie as they did stretches in unison while Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot all readied themselves to test their own skills against the kids' fusion.

"Man, if all six of them are going up against this Stevonnie, they must be really tough!" pondered Rutile.

"Garnet is living proof that a fusion is far greater than the whole of its parts," admitted Adamite as she remembered her own shocking run-in with her, "And given that Connie has already proven to be more than she appears, this will most definitely be something."

The only ones who were not entirely captivated were both of the topazes, as they were too busy whispering sweet nothings to each other and giggling over them to notice. It took Amethyst literally knocking the lovebirds' heads together to get them to focus.

"Alright, now that we're all assembled, it's time to begin," started Pearl as she and the other participating gems formed a circle around Steven and Connie.

"Now then, while we are sure that Stevonnie is no doubt a capable fighter, we also don't want any unnecessary injury. If at any point either of you are overwhelmed, simply say the word and all of us will cease immediately."

"Yes Pearl!" nodded both the youths, clearly eager to begin.

"Well then, get yourselves ready," instructed Garnet. The jam buddies then joined hands and spun in a circle until pink light from Steven's gem washed over them until they were gone in a literal flash. Instead of the two adolescents, there was the much-taller Stevonnie wearing Steven's shirt underneath Connie's usual training attire.

"You know, even when I saw this coming…" remarked a weirded-out Bismuth, "This is still really…"

"Surprising?" finished Peridot.

"Yeah. Just a bit."

"You're taking it better than Peri," joked Amethyst, "She spent seven hours straight in the barn-"

"WE NEVER SPEAK OF THAT!" demanded the petite techie, even throwing a tin can at Amethyst to prove her point.

"What can I say? I'm one of a kind!" laughed Stevonnie as they stood ready with Steven's shield in one hand and Rose's blade in the other. With all their opponents being gems, now there was no fear of permanent damage from the blade.

"If we're done with the distractions…" grumbled Pearl, "Now then, Stevonnie, are you ready?"

"Yep!" The fusion was literally hopping in place in excitement.

"Then let's go," stated Garnet as she wasted no time charging at the excitable trainee with her gauntlets ready. Stevonnie weaved and dodged every punch with disturbing accuracy and forced Garnet to push her future vision to the limit to try and find some way to break their stance. After one failed hit too many, Stevonnie belted Garnet in the face with their shield and held her at sword-point as she lay on the ground.

They did not have any time to relish the victory, however, as Peridot and Lapis both moved in with a tag-team strategy. While the former stayed back and used her ferrokinesis to distract the fusion with metal projectiles, the latter got up close and personal with her fists. While she was far from a master, Lapis showed drastic improvement with combat as she punched and kicked in conjunction with her unparalleled flight to make Stevonnie sweat as they deflected the onslaught.

"Their agility and cunning is amazing," assessed Adamite from the sidelines, "By combining her ingenuity with his versatility they really can't be touched."

"Stevonnie is awesome!" cheered Padparadscha as the fusion in question found their way out of the deadlock.

Lapis' fighting style revolved around using her wings to dart around her opponent and throw them off guard with unpredictability. To further make her movements hard to read, she would occasionally land and fight on the ground for a few seconds before revealing her wings once more and taking off again. That part of her strategy proved to be her downfall, though, as Stevonnie grabbed on Lapis' wrist hard enough to keep her in place and then flung her at Peridot. The two collapsed in a heap from the impact and spent several minutes just trying to get back on their feet.

With that taken care of, Stevonnie had another problem in the form of Amethyst zooming past her at speeds that could actually break necks and taking potshots with her whip. The fusion could only summon a bubble to keep themselves safe until they found a solution.

"Come on, Amethyst, that's not fair!" pouted Stevonnie as Amethyst stopped her blitzkrieg.

"Aww, can't handle my speed?" taunted the purple sprinter, "What are you gonna do about it?"

"This!" was all they replied as they dropped their bubble in a split second and revealed a whip in one hand and a shield in the other. Without missing a beat, they brought them together into a massive, fluorescent pink yo-yo and beaned Amethyst in the face with it. Once she was thrown off-balance, they wrapped the cord around her waist and sent her spinning at an absurd velocity. Once she finally stopped being the world's largest top, she fell down with literal swirls instead of eyes and mumbled deliriously.

"You've got to be kidding me!" groaned Peridot as she and Lapis tried to get their bearings back, "They can use fusion weapons?!"

"We probably should've seen that coming…" admitted Lapis, remembering that their own fusion was capable of melting spaceships.

Oblivious to their conversation, Stevonnie was now being tested by Bismuth as the blacksmith morphed her fists into every shape imaginable to catch them off-guard. Combined with her impressive strength and agility belying her physique, she proved to be almost as much of a heavy-hitter as Garnet with every swing and forced Stevonnie to dodge everything or be knocked away by the impact.

At least, that's what Bismuth assumed their strategy was until the fusion decided to make her jaw drop by catching her hammer in one hand and socked her in the gut with a gauntlet in the other. Now that she was literally gasping for breath, Stevonnie stopped pulling punches and knocked her around with a barrage of hits until the blacksmith fell over.

"Okay… Uncle… Or whatever the saying is…" she submitted, "Anymore and… I won't feel my face…"

While the fusion worried that they might have overdone it, that thought was pushed aside as Pearl and Garnet came at her from two different angles. Both were frankly gobsmacked by the talent Stevonnie displayed, but for now had to keep focused. Instead of simply blocking or dodging, Stevonnie leapt into the air with a massive jump. Garnet and Pearl followed after them, but Stevonnie one-upped them again by somehow jumping in mid-air. Higher and higher they climbed until they could barely see the two pursuing gems.

"They're even greater than I hoped," exclaimed Garnet proudly as she watched the fusion finally stop and slowly float down to Earth.

"That's an extreme understatement!" raved Pearl, "I honestly don't know what I could possibly teach them at this point! They're simply flawless!"

Her praise was undermined, however, by Stevonnie's first attempt at using Opal's bow. As the arrow was nocked and ready to fire, a stray sneeze from the fusion caused them to drop the light arrow which soon vanished into sparkles.

"Start with archery," advised Garnet, nonplussed as usual.

Stevonnie was not deterred, however, and decided to try a new fusion weapon instead. With a whip in one hand and a gauntlet on the other, the two were swiftly combined into a smaller pink version of Sugilite's flail which the fusion swung wildly as they rocketed towards the ground at a breakneck speed. The attack landed with a mighty crash that not only blew away all six of their opponents, but also made a crater almost eight feet deep and ten feet across.

"Okay, I know this is rich coming from me," moaned Amethyst as she and others tried to recover, "BUT YOUR POWERS ARE BULL!"

"Amethyst, language!" reprimanded Pearl.

"I know I've heard that somewhere else…" thought Lapis as she tried to get Bismuth off of her.

"This WAS just a training exercise, right?" wearily asked Peridot.

Stevonnie chuckled as they leapt out of the crater and helped everyone out. "Sorry about that… Guess I literally don't know my own strength."

"Well, one thing's for sure is that you are going to go very far," remarked Garnet as the fusions shook hands. The awed audience applauded as the show wrapped up and Adamite used her terrakinesis to refill the massive hole in the ground. With such a spectacular display, the group now felt more confident than ever that they could weather whatever Homeworld threw at them next. Even as Stevonnie spit as they performed a final bow, the kids felt a renewed confidence that even White Diamond could not keep them down now!

* * *

White Diamond had to admit, she actually missed this sort of hands-on work. For too long she had been shut in her tower, content to supervise and maintain the status quo while Yellow and Blue did most of the heavy lifting. It made her wonder if she should finally grace the masses with her presence and take on colonization efforts personally.

Her spirits were dampened, however, by the grim nature of the task she took. Perusing through the disfigured gems recovered from Rose Quartz's base meant seeing dozens of her subjects forced to continue a cursed existence where they could never again be the dutiful servants they were meant to be! Honestly, she had half a mind to put them all out of their misery to spare them to this damnation! Tempting as they might have been, she decided to hold off until she found some concrete answers to this hunch she had that Earth could have some innate properties that alter gems and if it was somehow reversible.

So far, she had gone through almost all of the one hundred-plus stones she recovered and found little to be excited about. When released from their prison, all of them turned out to be feral, unintelligible and even more pathetic than she imagined. When she found data on who they were before this tragedy befell them, she did find something of note. All of the gems so far were last seen in a specific time frame. This gave her answers about what caused this corruption; it was a side-effect of the Diamond Authority's final assault on Rose Quartz not long after the defiler shattered Pink Diamond. While this did relieve her fear that Earth was a natural contaminant, she still felt it was only right to save these gems since they could no longer be of use to her empire. Once she was done with them, all of them were shattered so they would no longer have to bear this awful life.

Groundbreaking as that was, she was still reaching her wit's end. All of this was starting to look like a mostly fruitless endeavor, but continued anyway out of her desire to see anything to completion and brought up the next in the lineup. A jasper coated with blue and red splotches with the unique quality of being in a purple bubble instead of the pink, red or white like the previous specimens. She freed the gem inside and was once again disgusted by the sight.

Out of formality, she pulled up this gem's file before she would be sentenced so she could at least be given some condolences for the torment she suffered. When she found out who she was dealing with, however, her thoughts changed.

_"Wait a minute, this jasper was only recently captured. And her last known mission was… To capture Rose Quartz?! Interesting…"_

She poofed the quadrupedal gem in front of her before immediately contacting Yellow Diamond. If her guess was right, then she may have found a gem worth saving. A gem who could be the perfect tool for eliminating Rose Quartz once and for all.

**And that's all for now, folks! Tune in next time for more plot!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	34. Upgrades

**And now for one last chapter of relative peace before things REALLY get good!**

After their first fused training session, Pearl and Garnet wanted to expand on the prowess of Stevonnie along with their individual skills. All in all, the buddies were happy to be spend more time with each other considering how often the Indian girl was left out of the recent skirmishes with Homeworld. It also helped to distract from how Greg was still absent with no proper explanation. Any attempt for Steven or the gems to reach him by phone went ignored and they always managed to miss him at the car wash. According to the people around town, he was actually seen all traipsing all over town with every asking of why being answered with "He wants to get in shape." Steven decided to take his father's word at face value for now, appreciating that he was trying to improve his health even as he aged.

The other Crystal Gems, meanwhile, were further motivated by the kids' determination to better themselves and sought their own forms of progress. For the original triad of Crystal Gems that also meant putting themselves to the grind along with the pupils. Garnet focused mostly on her relatively new fire and ice abilities, even getting some input from Cinnabar in order to bolster her technique. Amethyst was now a running fanatic, spending hours every day flexing her speed and improving her footing. Pearl, as the only one without any spiffy new powers, doubled down on her combat proficiency which also helped out many of the other gems.

Much like how Rhodonite wanted to be more involved in physical fighting, Topaz was also looking to expand her combat prowess given that she was more of a bodyguard than a traditional warrior. With her much bulkier physique and lack of experience, the fused captain was worried she was not cut out for traditional fighting but Pearl assured there was never a student she could not teach. Given that Topaz's weapon was essentially a weighted spear, it did not take long to adapt Pearl's style to suit her anatomy. Unlike her teacher who used quick attacks and high agility to dance around the opponent's guard, Topaz learned to use her ample power to push through defenses or literally knock them aside so they were easy pickings. After every day of hard work, the fusion rewarded herself with another episode of her new favorite series _Camp Pining Hearts _where she could unwind while bawling over half an hour of teenage melodrama.

Rhodonite herself, meanwhile, was also continuing to make progress while the rest of the Off-Colors continued to focus on their duties aboard the Sun Incinerator. The four-eyed fusion was now a regular attendee at Steven and Connie's training sessions with her occasionally sparring against the two to better her own skills. Pearl once offered for her to try against Stevonnie, but the fusion declined saying she was nowhere that level of skill yet. In fact, she almost looked scared by the prospect much to the kid's own surprise. Sure, their fusion was a force to be reckoned with but enough to instill fear?

That thought was brushed aside quickly in the storm of new changes that also came to the abode of the Crystal Gems considering their number had literally quadrupled in the past month. The first order of business was to further expand the temple so more of their members had proper rooms.

The first of the new additions was Bismuth, despite her repeatedly saying she already had a forge to work in and did not want them to occupy their time with something trivial. Her objections fell on deaf ears, however, as Pearl insisted it would be much more convenient if Bismuth had an in-home workshop instead of having to warp in and out of the house every time she wanted to make a new weapon. With that said, it only took a few hours for Bismuth to receive her own room. Once she walked up to the door, with her polychromatic stone added to the star on top, the door opened in a swirl of color to reveal a near-exact replica of her old forge save for being almost twice as large. The gem was so touched, she almost suffocated Pearl, Peridot and Lapis when she hugged them all out of sheer glee. The cherry on top was that her room also came with a door that connected the place with Peridot's laboratory meaning the duo could now easily meet up to work on projects together or split up to work on her own.

Topaz was genuinely surprised when she received a room of her own, but the others insisted her help in taking out Aquamarine as well as holding off Emerald's spaceship platoon deserved a more tangible reward. A new point on the star bearing two flat yellow circles was made and the door opened with a simple gold flash. The duo's room was more earthly, but given how both of them adored the varied natural landscapes of Earth compared to the technological monotony of Homeworld, it was perfect. The room was a grassy meadow with a constant tickling breeze rustling the plants and spreading the aroma of fresh flowers. Said flowers grew in patches all over the place in every color of the rainbow underneath a gorgeous blue sky with several puffy clouds lazily drifting overhead. There was a large lake with a small bar of sand lining the water on one side while the other showed a series of rolling hills that seemed to stretch endlessly. The fusion could hardly contain her tears as she simply began to frolic through the fields and get drunk on the splendid fresh air.

While Topaz was surprised, Adamite was floored by the announcement. She could understand Cinnabar getting her own space where she could be as destructive as she wanted, but what could it benefit her? The idea was first pitched by Lapis of all gems, claiming that she deserved a space for herself with all the effort she puts into helping them. With her pentagonal stone added to the door, it became a massive green slab that slid to the side to reveal her own personal cave. The ceiling was over a hundred feet high with the occasional ray of sunlight illuminating the interior. While most imagine caverns as drab or intimidating, Adamite's abode was a vibrant combination of colors as marbles of every hue wove around each other in random directions. There was even a cluster of real gemstones scattered among the floor and wall that sparkled in the sun. The cavern stretched as far as the eye could see, giving her subterranean playground where she could use her powers to her heart's content. The normally impassive earth-bender all but fainted from the gesture and gave Lapis a hug so sincere and warm it left the aquatic gem blushing long after it was over.

All that was left was Cinnabar, who took the idea of a place where she could really cut loose in stride. Once a scarlet circle was added to the shape that was only a star by name, she all but jumped through the door as it melted into slag and revealed her home. If Garnet's room was a mostly-realistic volcanic chamber, Cinnabar's room was a fiery hellscape the likes of which could never exist naturally. Literal rivers of lava lazily drifted between massive crags of black rock while ash constantly rained down from above. Flames of every color shot up from the floor while there were multiple suns poking through the immense clouds of ash and waves of smoke. While most would see this as a place of torment, it was a paradise to Cinnabar where she could turn her flames up to their highest level without any fear of collateral. She literally looked like a kid on Christmas morning after receiving her gift and was not seen for hours as she ran helter-skelter through her molten rock wonderland while shooting flames at everything in sight.

The Off-Colors were all offered their own place, but they collectively decided the Sun Incinerator was home enough for them plus they felt it was wrong to exclude Fluorite since there was still no conceivable way she could fit in the house itself. Once the living arrangements were set, the group was settling into a new lifestyle.

While the group had their free time, there was still the problem with Homeworld looking for vengeance and thus further measures were needed to ensure their safety. Topaz and the Off-Colors took daily patrols into the atmosphere to spot any incoming Homeworld spacecraft, the force-field remained up at all times, and any suspicious activity was to be reported immediately. Of course, that led to a few incidents with the gems less experienced to Earth's ways to make false claims. Adamite, in particular, made almost a dozen claims about suspicious activity in the first week whether it was thinking mussels were some espionage device or that the seagulls could be sentry drones in disguise. Every time her paranoia was found unwarranted and every time it left the gem blushing bright brown and getting a laugh out of Cinnabar. The fiery gem was often left buried up to her head more than once.

At the end of the day, however, Steven and the Crystal Gems found themselves with time for fun or merely enjoying the serenity. The boy tried showing more of them his favorite show _Crying Breakfast Friends_, but none of them seemed all too interested. By comparison, almost all of them got hooked to _Camp Pining Hearts_ to the point where Steven joked that they must have some mind-controlling frequency that makes the show irresistible to aliens.

Outside of that, there was little that deviated from their new definition of ordinary. One such incident, though, happened in the middle of the night when something warped into the temple. A five-foot tall yellow cylinder that began to glow once the warp was completed, but it never got a chance to perform as the scanner around the warp pad activated at the same second.

"Foreign object detected," spoke the recorded voice of Peridot, "Returning to sender."

The cylinder was automatically recalled back to where it once came from just as Steven was awoken from the noise.

"Huh…? Wha' was that?" he asked as he walked downstairs.

"That looked like some kind of bomb to me," asked Bismuth as she was reading a book on engineering by the kitchen.

"A BOMB?!"

"Relax, bud, our scanner picked it up and sent it straight back to Homeworld. Bet the Diamonds' will get a real kick out of that!" She giggled at the potential faces they would make while a now mostly-awake Steven contemplated her words.

"Has this happened before?"

"Actually, yeah. This is like the fifth time in the past month they've tried, but they just don't seem to get it. After the third time, Peri programmed it to just return objects as long as they weren't a gem, they just get zapped until they poof. We're looking into adding an alarm so that way we'll know as soon as it happens then we can quickly bubble them so there's nothing to worry about."

"Huh, that's good to know." Before he could say much more, he yawned deeply as his body yearned for sleep.

"Go back to bed, Steven. You're never going to be in danger in this house, I promise."

"Thanks Bismuth. Night-night…" He lumbered his way back upstairs ready to return to dream land as Bismuth went back to her reading. She never knew just how many ideas humans had come up with on how to build weapons in the time she had been gone.

* * *

Blue and Yellow Diamond were both having an interesting time with White's personal involvement with defeating Rose's rebellion. While they would never dare admit it, they both found it hilarious that her sting operation ended up an even bigger failure than Aquamarine's siege. The leader of White's siege, Emerald, was now relegated to piloting guard ships around Homeworld. This is the gem equivalent of stationing someone in the worst possible branch in a corporate office as punishment, though given the scope of her failure Emerald took this over being imprisoned or shattered.

Since then, however, White was briefly back to her seclusion as she analyzed the corrupted gems stolen from Rose's headquarters and sent the results to the two of them. The disfigurement on these stones was absolutely horrifying to both of the matriarchs, but only got worse when they learned that _they _were the cause of it. Blue insisted that a memorial celebrating the Homeworld soldiers who lost their forms and were cursed to this existence be made which White allowed. Those that were affiliated with Homeworld in the records would have a commemorative obelisk with their full designation installed in Blue Diamond's headquarters immediately. Those found affiliated with the Crystal Gems, however, were instantly sentenced to death by incineration by the nearest sun. Even White herself felt a twinge of guilt for the loyal gems who inadvertently lost their lives fighting for their empire.

With that taken care of, both of the Diamonds were surprised when White seemed adamant about keeping one and restoring her to her original form. While they were interested by the information that this was actually a gem they recently sent to Earth, they did not see any immediate benefit of reviving her instead of letting her die with the others.

"No offense, White, but this whole idea seems so-" spoke Blue hesitantly.

"Unlike you. You've always favored pragmatism over everything else," finished Yellow causing her neutral-colored superior to nod.

"While that is usually the case, I believe this one could be a valuable asset. Take a look at her dossier once more."

"'Jasper Facet-C8D1 Cut 6X6. Noticeable example of the capabilities of the Beta Kindergarten on Earth. While the majority of the gems planted there were highly defective due to shoddy positioning and insufficient soil resources, this jasper is an ideal specimen. Investigations should be run in order to identify the source of this anomaly,'" read Yellow from the file, "Interesting."

"Wait…she's the one who originally went with that peridot to Earth so long ago!" remembered Blue.

"Exactly," affirmed White, "And once she caught sight of Rose Quartz, she immediately tried to capture her and return her to Homeworld to face her crimes. The sole reason she was unsuccessful was Rose's subordinates sabotaging the ship and forcing them crash. We lost official contact with her there, but in that intervening time she somehow fell victim to the same corruption as the gems from eons ago."

"What could have caused this?" asked Blue.

"From what I can hypothesize, the most likely cause is that this corruption is contagious via extended contact or through fusion. My research ruled out that it was not an inherent quality of that planet as I originally thought."

"Have you been able to gather anything from her in this state?" asked Yellow.

"Negative. Like the others, this corruption has reduced her to a feral quadruped able to do little more than blindly attack anything around her."

"Oh, the poor thing…" moaned Blue, almost ready to cry from that news.

"However, with the recent information that the very cause of this affliction was our final strike against Rose Quartz, I theorize we already have the capabilities to restore her."

"Really?! That's wonderful!"

"You mean, since our energies fueled the catalyst for this mutation, that same energy could be used to purify her and return her to normal?" asked Yellow.

"Precisely. All it would take is some adjustments to the frequency and our energies should work as a natural antidote."

"And once she's restored to normal?" asked Blue.

"She has quite the personal vendetta against Rose Quartz. She _was _one of Pink Diamond's subjects, after all."

"How soon until this plan be put into effect?" wondered Yellow.

"It won't be long, since I already have a head start on constructing the device for adjusting our energies. With that sorted, how have those explosive charges you've been sending to the Crystal Gems, Yellow?"

"They've all failed miserably. Those that were not disarmed prematurely by the rebels were returned to their destination almost as quickly as they were sent."

"What is this for, exactly?" pondered Blue.

"Testing the rebels' defenses. Each of those charges were beamed directly into the heart of Rose Quartz's headquarters and yet all of them were sent back prematurely. It seems she had the forethought to safeguard her warp pad against any incoming threats."

"I take this will tie in to that gem you wish to revive?" assumed Yellow.

"Also correct. And this time, I will be personally monitoring the entire operation so that I will know with absolute certainty if Rose is shattered."

"And…if it fails?" wondered Blue hesitantly.

"Are you suggesting that my plan has any flaws in it?"

"N-N-No, of course not, White!" interrupted Yellow, "I-It's just that… You always have some contingency plan in effect and us knowing it may allow us to provide better assistance."

White merely stared at both of them, causing the duo of lesser matriarchs to sweat profusely until their superior grinned. "Exactly what I wanted to hear. Well then, if there's nothing else, continue with your regular duties and do not make any moves against the rebels until my word is given. That will be all."

**To quote one of the comments from AO3: "You get a room! And you get a room! And _you _get a room!" Sums it up pretty well actually! But next time, though, we'll have something much more exciting than redecorating...**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	35. Strike First

**And now we come to the end of the first act of this story. This and the next two chapters have been in my mind for roughly two years now so I hope they don't disappoint!**

The days seemed to fly by for the Crystal Gems with so many new faces. Between the daily training sessions, the temple's resident builders looking for new ideas for inventions along with the regular antics that came with having such a large and literally colorful family living under one roof.

While it was helped that everyone in the house had their own space, the main house itself was often chaotic and today was no exception. As Steven finished his morning routine to begin his morning run, Amethyst was on his bed trying to teach Cinnabar video games starting with a basic platforming game. Like her respective element, the fire bending gem was very quick to set off when things went wrong.

"UGH! This is impossible! How am I supposed to move my thumbs this much?!" she yelled while literally smoking.

"Dude, this is the first level! I can beat this one hand," boasted Amethyst.

"Fine! Prove it!"

"Watch and learn, noob."

To make her point, Amethyst used her shapeshifting to turn one of her arms into a stump and yet proceeded to make it through the stage with only one hand on the controller. The scarlet gem looked at her in awe.

"Told ya."

Steven snickered as he went downstairs and left the two to their fun. On the main floor of the house, Pearl and Rhodonite were making idle chit-chat as they waited for Connie to arrive for their next lesson. Topaz, meanwhile, was simply sitting by the fire pit enjoying the warmth it provided. The young boy's spirits lifted seeing her so content and at peace compared to when they first met.

As he walked out the front door, he found Garnet, Bismuth and Lapis Lazuli watching something with great amusement on the beach. When he stepped up to the railing, he gasped as he saw Lion zip by with a terrified Peridot screaming for dear life while clinging to his mane.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLP!" she yelled for the umpteenth time.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" guffawed Bismuth as she finally lost her composure at the sight, "I can't... hahaha…This is too much…AHAHahaha…"

"What's happening" ventured Steven, almost afraid to ask.

Lapis spoke up as she kept watching the hilarity unfold. "Apparently, Peridot wanted to study Lion and that weird space in his mane and-"

"She woke him from his nap. And then this happened," finished Garnet.

"I WAAAAAAANT PUUUUUUUUUMPKIIIIIIIN!" shrieked Peri as she passed them once more.

"How long has she been going for?" asked the boy.

"Fifteen minutes now," answered Garnet who was clearly enjoying the show.

"You'd think she'd let go by now…"

"STEEEEEVEEEEEN!" shouted Peri as her hands started cramping, "DOOOOOOOO SOMETHIIIIIIIIIIING!"

"Lion, Dad's bed is open for napping upstairs!"

That actually did the trick as the massive feline immediately stopped and traipsed up the patio steps and went inside ready for a catnap. Unfortunately, Peridot was still holding onto the mane when he went from a full run to a stop and thus she was flung about fifty feet into the sand face-down.

Bismuth laughed so hard tears were streaming from her eyes while Lapis was clearly struggling not to do the same. Steven was already losing that battle as he watched Peri try to shake off all the sand on her like a dog.

"Garnet," she asked, "Do you know where Adamite is?"

"Her room, most likely."

"Good, because I'm going to need her to ensure all these accursed particles are off of me…"

Bismuth laughed for several more minutes before she finally managed to catch her breath, long after Garnet and Lapis returned to their usual activities. Steven, meanwhile, was doing stretches to prepare himself for his morning run. Just as he was about to get going, however, he received a call on his phone.

"Hello?"

"Heya, schtu-ball! How you doing today?"

"DAD!"

"Yep, I know, it's hard to believe I still exist. Sorry I can't be there more often for you sport, but I've gotta lot on my plate nowadays."

"Don't worry about it, dad. I've got a lot going on too with my training and so many new gems around. So how's the car wash?"

"Great! Haven't been this busy in... well, forever! Those kids are doing great and for once I have time to do something else."

"You mean your little fitness routine?"

"Yeah… About that… Is Peridot or Bismuth around?"

"Uh, yeah, Bismuth's right here."

"Is that your dad?" asked the dreadlocked gem just before she went inside.

"Yeah, and he wants to talk to you."

Bismuth took the phone as best as she could given the size of her hands and took the call indoors leaving Steven to ponder what they were discussing. Knowing where butting into other people's lives got him last time, though, he decided to let this sort itself out and take his jog around the boardwalk. As he ran around the piers and shops of the sleepy town, many familiar faces greeted and waved to him. While his inner child was dying for some fry bits and donuts, he had to reign in him impulses and get back to work. Once he came back almost an hour later, he was treated to a surprise as he found Peridot and Bismuth sitting with his father in the flesh.

"Dad! What're you doing here?"

"That's right, sport, I'm still alive!" The two embraced in a hug and spent a few seconds just being near each other until Peridot interrupted them.

"Ahem, while your familial interactions are indeed charming, he has a prior obligation that he needs to fulfill. Now then, we have finally finished construction on that project of yours but-"

"We still need you to actually use it," finished Bismuth much to her partner's frustration, "After all that work we need to make sure there's no glitches."

"'Project?' What are they talking about, Dad?"

Greg took a deep breath and exhaled before holding his son by the shoulders. "Steven…I'm no gem. Sure, I've found ways to be handy in the past but I can't help but feel like I'm starting to be dead weight."

"That's not true, Dad! You've been really helpful before!"

"Sure, I did some cool things like fixing that dome (Although Pearl's face when I told her what I did was hilarious) and I kinda helped with the drill since it was made with parts from the barn, but there's not much else besides that. Heck, I've had to be rescued from space once and then got held hostage by Homeworld _twice _now!"

"Adamite says she's sorry for that, by the way," spoke Peridot.

"Uhh…Thanks. Anyway, sport, I don't want to be some helpless old fart who needs the Crystal Gems to come to his rescue over and over again. I wanna be able to really pitch in with something besides my checkbook, too."

"In short, your father had the idea to create a smaller, more portable version of that attack robot I designed months ago for my bet with Pearl. While we were making slow progress before, our efforts were aided by Aquamarine's fleet and all the parts we were able to salvage in order to make a wearable armor along with matching weapons that could also make him surpass the capabilities of a typical human," explained Peridot only for Steven to tilt his head to one side in clear confusion.

"Your dad had us build him a super suit so he can kick butt," summarized Bismuth.

"REALLY?!" gasped the boy as his eyes went starry, "That's amazing!"

Greg could only chuckle at his son's enthusiasm. "Hehehe… Yeah, your old man's been getting himself into shape so he doesn't worry about getting tuckered out too fast in the thick of it. I honestly thought you'd be a little worried about me."

"Dad, I know we could use everything we can get and if this is what you want, I won't try to stop you."

The two embraced in a warm hug once again before Steven suddenly looked him dead in the eye with a grumpy scowl on his face.

"But if you get too injured, young man, I'm confiscating your super suit and you're going to bed without supper!"

"Hey now, who's the parent here again?! Looks like I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson!"

The middle-aged rocker grabbed his son and began giving him noogies, both of them laughing all the while as Bismuth could only giggle at their antics. Peridot, meanwhile, was just getting more exasperated.

"Again, touching as your tomfoolery is, we still need to begin testing the suit immediately and that includes making sure he fits in it. No offense, but those sorts of adjustments take some time to implement."

"Alright, ladies, I'm done goofing off for now," he uttered while giving his son a final affectionate hair tussling, "Let's suit me up!"

Peridot led him and Bismuth into her room while Steven resumed today's training regimen; sparring with Pearl and Rhodonite at the Sky Arena. After a solid hour of sparring against the duo of gems, he returned home with the two to find Garnet simply talking with Adamite and Cinnabar while outside past the force field the Off-Colors were running diagnostics on the Sun Incinerator.

"Hi Steven! Look who finally came out of her room!" joked Cinnabar.

"How amusing," droned Adamite, "But if my memory, which has always been superior to yours, is correct then you also indulged in your new space for an extended period of time as well.

"Maybe, but at least I didn't spend all that time make rock castles!"

"I happen to find it relaxing which is key to staying in top mental condition for battle. You can poke fun at it at your leisure, but you will get no reaction from me."

"They've been like this all day, haven't they?" whispered Pearl to Garnet.

"Pretty much. You seem very happy with Steven's training."

"He's become the ideal student," she praised, "Attentive, devoted, and always looking for new ways to improve. It's hard to believe a year ago we were scared he couldn't handle a basic mission or treat the whole thing like a game!"

"Guess we should've given him more credit."

While the two original Crystal Gems made small talk, Rhodonite made her way outside to help her crewmates with the diagnostics. Steven, meanwhile, was just taking a brief rest before his next activity and drinking a bottle of water.

As the bustle of the temple of continued, Connie walked in with Rose's sword in one hand and a duffel bag in the other.

"Ready to go, jam bud?" she called as she let herself in.

"You bet! I wonder if we can finally get the hang of archery as Stevonnie today?"

"I know, right? You'd think between the two of us there'd be some applicable skills, but instead we either can't nock the arrow right or when we do fire it, the thing flies for maybe two feet."

"I still have no idea how we managed to hit _ourselves_ with the bowstring that one time!"

"Don't worry about that for now," assured Pearl, "Today we're mostly going to be focusing on you two as individuals anyway. In fact, today's lesson will have you trying to copy each other so you can learn more about how you can improve from the other's expertise."

The kids understood the idea, but also could not help but want to recreate that old gag of two people mimicking each other in a mirror looking more ridiculous as they go along. Before they could all head to the warp pad, though, something else was warped in. Unlike the other unexpected packages, though, this was looked to be an ordinary white crystal that Steven could easily hold in his hands. Before any of them, including the security barrier on the warp pad, could react the crystal exploded into a ball of white lightning that blinds everyone in the room. When they all clear their eyes, it's apparent that the pad protector is fried beyond repair.

"Our creation!" moaned Peridot, "What is the meaning of this?!"

"We're going to find out…" muttered Garnet as all the Crystal Gems either emerged from their rooms or came in from outside to watch. While Greg already went home to tinker with his new suit, the others were all standing in dead silence until another warp stream emerged. Once the lights cleared, a tall imposing figure stood against all the Crystal Gems save for the Off-Colors who watched from outside the force field. Despite being outnumbered almost ten to one; the intruder did not look the least bit intimidated. To the newer arrivals, they had no idea who this hulking orange gem was other than she was clearly bad news. For the longtime members, her cocky smirk was unforgettable.

"J-J-Jasper?!" exclaimed Steven, baffled out of his mind.

"What's the matter, Rose Quartz? Thought your little corruption stunt would keep me down forever? Or were just planning to keep me in a bubble for all time?!" she growled.

"That whole debacle was clearly your fault!" corrected Peridot, "_You _willingly fused with a corrupted gem in a last-ditch effort to defeat Smoky Quartz when you proved incapable of doing so with your own abilities."

"Shut it, you traitor!"

"Like consent ever mattered to her…" mumbled Lapis. Hearing this, Adamite and Cinnabar quickly realized just who this gem was.

"You're the clod who fused with her to make Malachite, aren't you?!" yelled Cinnabar as she looked ready to turn Jasper into cinders.

"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"

Adamite placed a hand on her blue-colored cohort and glared at Jasper with pure hatred. "You are the gem responsible for keeping Lapis Lazuli in a toxic relationship purely out of your own lust for power. You not only broke one of the most crucial laws of Homeworld, but you did so out of your own personal pleasure. If it were my decision, I would happily shatter you to ensure you _never _put her in that situation ever again."

Rather than be offended, the brawler just laughed it off. "Like I care what some outdated gem thinks. Besides, you think you can take me on?"

"I know I sure can!" boasted Bismuth as she rushed forward and punched Jasper hard enough to completely smash through the now-defunct warp pad protector and into the wall near the temple door. Bismuth morphed her hand into a hammer and went straight for her gemstone, but Jasper was not overpowered so easily. She intercepted the blow and kneed Bismuth in the gut hard enough to make her lose her footing and then shoved her aside. Garnet and Topaz then grabbed her by the shoulders to ensure she did not try that again.

"Let me go! I'm gonna teach her a lesson! She's gonna pay for doing that to another gem!"

"Bismuth, we don't need to escalate things," said Garnet, "Stand down before this gets any uglier."

The dreadlocked blacksmith reluctantly agreed and stopped squirming.

"Now then, what exactly do you want? Knowing you, this could be some sort of personal vendetta," asked Pearl.

"As much as I want to clobber all of you traitors, I'm here on a mission for White Diamond herself. I'm here to collect Rose Quartz."

"This _again_?!" shrieked Connie, "What is _wrong _with you all?! Can't you just leave well enough alone?! He's one person in an entire universe and you don't have _anything _better to do?!"

Jasper completely ignored her and instead looked at Steven. Rather than look afraid or back down, he met her stare without flinching. The gem actually looked impressed.

"Well, whatever's up with that body of yours, at least you carry yourself like you used to. For once, you don't like a sniveling coward."

"You don't have to do this. You can just go back to Homeworld and live your life while we live ours. We won't attack you if you don't attack us."

"Says the gem responsible for shattering Pink Diamond for doing her job…"

Steven's eye twitched at that remark. "I keep telling you I'm not Rose Quartz, but whatever. Would you please just get out of my house?"

"Not unless you agree to come with me and finally face the other Diamonds, unless you plan on shattering them too?"

While the boy was trying to hold onto whatever tact he had left, Connie already lost all of hers and got in Jasper's face. "ARRRRGH! Will you listen for one second?! Steven is NOT Rose Quartz! How many times does he have to tell you idiots before-!"

She was cut off as Jasper socked the girl in the face hard enough to draw blood and dislocate her nose. The entire group gasped in shock.

"You need to teach your _pet _some manners."

"How dare you! Human beings are unique individuals capable of far more than us gems are!" scolded Pearl as she pointed her spear at Jasper's face.

"Really? Given how fragile it is-"

Steven interrupted her with a single word. "She."

"Huh?"

"It's she. _She _is my best friend and deserves respect. Now you better apologize for hurting her before I do something I regret." His shield appeared on one arm while a gauntlet appeared on his other hand.

"Ha! Like you can do anything to me. You've never been able to fight me off before unless you relied on fusion."

"Jasper, it doesn't have to be like this!" begged Amethyst, "We're all the same! You were even made on Earth, just like me! Why do we have to keep bringing up this same old grudge instead of finally moving on?"

Jasper looked down at her very distant purple relative, her eyes barely able to hold back the tears as Connie was trying to stop her nosebleed. She then let out a loud, cruel laugh and kicked Amethyst away like a soccer ball.

"I am _nothing _like you filthy, disgraceful rejects! If there's anything good about this forsaken hunk of rock, it's that it at least produced some proper _loyal _gems like me. I still have no idea why you fight so much for it, but if you want to wipe yourself out by resisting the punishment you all deserve then be my guest."

With that hateful rhetoric in the open, the entire house was silent enough that they could hear the floorboards settling. Even otherwise levelheaded gems like Garnet and Adamite looked half-ready to throw all caution to the wind as long as it meant beating the orange braggart's face in. Topaz already had her staff out and Cinnabar was literally smoking in rage. Lapis, however, was a picture of tranquil fury. Rather than lash out with her fists, she let out her aggression with words.

"Jasper…You really never change. You've literally been given a second chance at life and here you are throwing it away all over some petty squabble."

"'Petty?!' They _shattered Pink Diamond!_ And hundreds of thousands of other gems who tried to defend their empire and you say that's a _waste of time?! _Have these gems corrupted you to like they did me?"

"That was your own fault, you clod! _You _chose to fuse with a corrupted gem and now you're going to lie through your teeth and say it's _Steven's _fault?! Your body may be fixed, but something is still clearly wrong with your head."

Lapis then walked up to Jasper and looked her square in the eyes. "Besides, _I'm _not the one who begged to become Malachite again. I learned how to be independent while you talked like _you _needed _me._ Who's the weak one here?"

"You better stop talking like that or I'll-"

"You'll make an even bigger fool of yourself," finished Pearl, "You are just like so many naysayers who swore Rose Quartz was insane and yet here. We. Are." The gem took another step forward with each word.

"It may have been an uphill battle in every sense of the word and we may have lost some good friends along the way, but we survived. And we proved we don't _need _the Diamond Authority. We are perfectly capable of thriving on our own instead of being mindless drones like _you._"

"Mindless?! I'm-"

"A standard-issue jasper fulfilling your routine functions just like tens of millions of others," interrupted Peridot, "You are a dime-a-dozen soldier who could effortlessly be replaced the instant you outlive your purpose. I, on the other hand, am different from the myriad of other peridots out there both in terms of skill set and personality. _That's _the difference between us, Jasper. I'm irreplaceable and you are not."

"Why you pathetic little runt-"

"You're the pathetic one!" shouted Bismuth, "All you go on about is boast about how big and bad you are, yet you need some Diamond to boss you around and give you something to do! If you've really got the power you say you have, why don't you go your own way instead of just being White Diamond's attack dog?"

"Shut it, you stupid-"

"If we're stupid, how come you can't answer anything, huh?" dared Amethyst, "If we're the helpless little idiots you keep saying we are, how did we send you packing every single time you came after us?"

"That was just luck-"

"Leave it to a delusional imbecile to concoct excuses for her failure instead of looking for ways to improve," chided Adamite, "Then again, since you, the ideal jasper, are designed to prioritize brawn over intellect you seem to be working properly."

"Take that back, you faulty-"

"Adamite and I survived for millennia without you creeps ordering us around!" boasted Cinnabar, "And now we realize we should have done something with ourselves instead of just waiting for Homeworld to find us. _We _were the clueless ones, since we never knew how much else was out there. And now, I wouldn't trade my life here for anything since I have more important things like friends."

"Just be quiet already-"

"You're just like Aquamarine!" insulted Topaz, "Whenever someone comes around that you can't bully into doing what you want, you just beat them down until they cave in. You clearly don't care about Lapis and frankly I don't think you care about the Diamonds. All you care about is yourself and helping you get ahead and that's sickening. I'm glad I never have to worry gems like that in my life ever again, because here I'm not just a tool to them. I'm someone who deserves respect and that's something you'll _never _understand."

"I swear I'm gonna-"

"Jasper, it's obvious there's no reasoning with you," added Garnet, "But if you can take anything from this, let it be this: you're alone. You may say you've got a massive empire behind you, but we all know that's not true. The second you don't do what you're told, the Diamonds will toss you aside. If you can stomach living like that, then I really am grateful I left Homeworld all those years ago. The Crystal Gems value each other, flaws and all, because we know that every gem is important. We know how to think for ourselves because we all have ideas that can help. When one of us falls behind, we all try to get them back on their feet. _That's _why Rose fought for this world, so any gem who didn't want to live in the shadow of domineering, prejudiced, tyrannical _schists _like the Diamonds and their subservient little thugs like you can have a place to be themselves. Now I suggest you get back on that warp pad, go back to Homeworld and never come back."

Jasper looked at the group of defiant gems, silently fuming as they once again refused to cooperate and come quietly. Unlike when they first met, though, Jasper was currently against four times as many opponents who seemed far less like the pushovers she once thought of them as.

"If you want me to leave, then make me!"

Jasper summoned her crash helmet and lunged straight at Steven. Much to her surprise, he summoned a shield and barely flinched from the impact. With his other hand free, he summoned a spear and would have gutted her had she not jumped back.

That soon became the least of her problems, though, as Garnet summoned a wave of ice and almost froze her solid. This actually made Jasper lose her concentration and look at the fusion with complete bewilderment.

"What the?!"

"I got upgraded since last time," replied the fusion as a small flame appeared in her other hand. She then summoned her gauntlets and nailed Jasper hard enough to send her flying out the windows and into the inside of the force field with a deafening smack.

"Peri, shut off the force field! We'll get her outside where there's more room!" shouted Amethyst as she dashed out the door with her hyper-speed. A few seconds later, the pink bubble around the temple came down for the first time in weeks as Jasper tried leaping into the air for an aerial attack. She was quickly brought down, literally, by Amethyst as she wrapped her whip around Jasper's foot and flung her into the sand.

With much more room to operate in, Amethyst showed off her new ability by literally running circles around her orange opponent and whipping her over and over again.

"How are you doing this?!" screamed Jasper.

"Who's the defect now, huh?!" jeered the stout sprinter as she raised a cloud of dust around her. With Jasper sufficiently blinded, she was wide-open to Adamite launching a boulder of solidified sand and Lapis crashing a ten-foot tall wave on top of her. All at once she was flattened by a dual attack of earth and water.

Before she even got another opportunity to bite back, Topaz and Bismuth double-teamed her. Now facing two gems of equal strength, she was quickly overwhelmed by the former's skills with her staff and the latter's mix of hand-to-hand combat mixed with her shapeshifting. The blacksmith landed an uppercut that sent her opponent flying. As she soared into the air, Pearl was already above her and slammed her into the ground with enough force to make a crater in the sand.

Even with that blow, though, Jasper would not quit and raced after Pearl using a spin dash. The lithe swordswoman quickly dodged and brought in Rhodonite who charged in with her saber.

"What, another war machine?!" goaded Jasper.

"Better that than being the Diamonds' pet!" replied Rhodonite with more bravado than she ever had in her life. Although she was new to direct combat, the four-armed fusion quickly found her stride and soon Jasper found herself being sliced and even stabbed multiple times. As much as it pained her to admit it, even she realized she was in a losing position with so many opponents with different skills and teamwork. She lowered herself to her knees and tried to catch her breath as the entire assembly of Crystal Gems, Steven and Connie included, stared her down.

"Now then," offered Garnet, "Now that we've made it clear we're not surrendering and you can't force in into complying, you have the chance to go peacefully. I highly suggest you take it."

The look Jasper gave her was pure, complete malice. If looks could kill, hers could literally give someone a stroke from a mile away. She eventually stood up, shoved Garnet out of the way with her shoulder and began walking back to the temple. As she passed by her enemies she saw looks of hesitation out of fear that she might snap once again, pride in how the supposed best gem Homeworld had to offer failed, and satisfaction that they once again stood their ground. Then she came face-to-face with Steven and Connie both glaring at her. While Steven was unarmed at the moment, Connie was still holding onto Rose's sword.

"So you really care about these…organics?" asked Jasper contemptibly.

"Yes. Every one of them is different. There's no one else like her on the planet."

"I see…"

In a split second, too fast for even the other gems to notice, Jasper kicked Steven away and grabbed Connie by her hair. The girl kicked and struggled as she shrieked in pain, but Jasper placed her other hand around her throat and began squeezing.

"NO! LET HER GO!" begged Steven as Connie gasped for air, dropping the sword in the process.

"Aw, what's the matter Rose? This little thing really means that much to you? Then why don't we make a deal; I let her go and you come with me instead."

"Steven, don't you dare do it!" demanded Connie once she got her breath back.

"But…Connie…"

"You promised me you'd never give yourself up again and I expect you to keep it!"

"But…"

"Shut it, you disgusting pebble!" shouted Jasper as she flung Connie face-first into the dirt. Unfortunately for her, that gave the girl the opportunity to reclaim her weapon. She managed to swing backhanded with enough force to cut Jasper's arm. With a pained gasp she let Connie go and stared her down like a disobedient animal.

"Connie, wait!" yelled Steven as he ran up to her, "Take my hand, we can fuse into Stevonnie and then-"

He was interrupted by Jasper ramming into him with a shoulder charge and sending him flying. While he was distracted by his concern for Connie's well-being, his alien opponent had no such restraint. She circled Connie, relishing the look of fear on her face.

"Let me guess, you're gonna give me the same speech about how we don't have to fight, right?" she taunted.

"As if you'd listen, you overgrown rock," jabbed Connie before charging with her blade held high. Despite her relative bulkiness, Jasper was quick on her feet and dodged her strike. Again and again Connie swung with ferocity, trying different maneuvers to trip up her foe, but the gem just avoided everything she threw at her.

"What's the matter, Rose Quartz?! Aren't you gonna help your _friend?_" goaded Jasper, "I'm not going to keep playing with her for much longer!"

The young boy heard her words, felt his stomach twist in anger at her insults, but his legs refused to cooperate. For the first time in months, the quiet confidence he held was gone. He felt that same terror encroach him in the old days when he first tried going on missions with Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl only for his body to lock up when he came in contact with the monster they were chasing. Only deep down, he knew this situation was worse. Not only was this monster dangerous, it was fully capable of thought and it was truly out for his blood. His eyes with pinpricks and his heart was beating like it was trying to escape his chest.

All the while, Connie was quickly growing exhausted. While the physical training she had with Garnet definitely helped, her stamina was still limited while Jasper was not breaking a sweat. Not helping her case was the growing frustration she felt as every strike she made hit nothing but air, no matter what strategy she used. It continued until Connie was simply stabbing and slashing randomly as her breaths grew heavier and her movements sloppier.

Their clash finally came to end, however, when Jasper stopped an overhead death-strike by trapping the blade between her hands.

"This is the sword you used to shatter Pink Diamond, isn't it?" asked the gem in a remarkably somber tone as Connie dangled off the handle. She nodded numbly, her mind just as limp as her body.

With a flick of her wrists, she severed the point of the blade. This threw Connie off and she, along with the rest of the horrified Crystal Gems, watched as Jasper threw punch after punch into the beloved blade. With each blow it was bent, mangled, or even splintered into dozens of pieces. Once she was done with it, what was once Rose Quartz's signature weapon was a pile of useless pink shards.

"There. Now it will never take another gem's life…" she muttered to herself, sounding genuinely relieved.

The feelings were not mutual, however, as the rest of the group looked on in horror as if one of their own was just killed in front of them. Bismuth and Pearl, in particular, looked ready to repay the favor with Jasper's gemstone.

That was not the end of the rampant cruelty, though, as Jasper grabbed Connie by her hair and hoisted her up against her will as she kicked and screamed for help with whatever energy she had left.

"You care so badly about this thing, huh Rose? Maybe if the Diamonds got her instead they'd let you go?"

"Don't say that! They don't want human beings!" asserted Steven, clearly trying to hold in a massive crying episode.

"Well then, maybe you'll accept a trade. Either I take her back to Homeworld with me instead of you, or you finally fess up to your crimes and accept your fate. I'll be at the main Kindergarten. You've got one hour of this planet's time before I leave with your _friend _in tow."

And with that, Jasper dragged her hostage kicking and screaming up the stairs and back inside. As she warped away, Steven could scarcely believe what started as an ordinary day turned into a complete nightmare in less than an hour.

**Next time, The Crystal Gems try to save Connie. These next chapters are so special that I don't want to spoil anything!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	36. Strike Hard

**And now for part two...**

Steven Universe had gone through many, many changes in the past several months ever since his near-suicidal decision to turn himself in to Aquamarine and the then-antagonistic Topaz. He had gained new abilities, truly experienced the heat of battle and learned very quickly that diplomacy was not always the answer. In spite of all this, though, he had retained his humanity and morality to the point where he still valued every individual life. Even the enemies who threatened his family and home were still individuals with their own lives and deserved to be treated as such.

Unfortunately, all that collectedness once again went out the window when Connie's safety was concerned. He barely gave a second thought about Jasper's demands before he dashed inside ad planned to warp to his destination, only to be stopped by Garnet lifting him off his feet.

"Steven, you need to get a grip!" she ordered as he struggled in her hands.

"But Connie, she's-"

"In danger, we know, but this isn't the way to handle things," advised Pearl, "This is exactly what Jasper and the Diamonds want. You need to take a deep breath and approach this situation rationally."

The boy did as he was told and regained his focus. While the anxiety was still buzzing in the back of his mind, at least now he could think clearly.

"Okay…I'm better now," he assured everyone, "But now what do we do?"

"Well, we all kicked Jasper's butt with all of us together," reminded Amethyst, "So if we all go together, we can save Connie and send her packing no sweat."

"While crudely stated, her statement is accurate," agreed Peridot, "Our combined abilities were more than enough to overwhelm her despite her superior hand-to-hand combat skills and centuries of experience. And if all else fails, any known fusion between us could effortlessly dispatch of her."

"Her demands never specified you meet with her alone, thus there is no obligation keeping us from accompanying you," added Adamite.

"As nice as that sounds, we don't know if Jasper is alone either," reminded Pearl, "She could have hundreds of troops waiting for you in the Kindergarten in order to ambush you or us as a whole."

"We could bring the Sun Incinerator!" thought Bismuth, "That thing's got enough firepower to match any ship the upper-crusts can throw at us and blow away any of their soldiers!"

"True…but we don't know where this Kindergarten is…" admitted Topaz, not wanting to bring up a snag in their plan. Peridot, however, already had a solution in mind.

"Don't worry, I am intimately familiar with the area and can act as your guide. Do we have any objections to this?"

"No, it's a sound strategy," approved Garnet, "You show the Off-Colors the way to the Kindergarten so we have backup in case this is a trap. The rest of us will travel via warp pad and confront Jasper directly."

And with all that sorted out, the team split up into two large groups in order to execute their plan. Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Bismuth, Lapis, Adamite and Cinnabar all squeezed onto the warp pad in order to teleport to Connie and Jasper's location while Peridot went off with Topaz and the Off-Colors to provide backup from their ship.

After what felt like the longest teleportation ever, the eight Crystal Gems arrived to find their target only a hundred feet away from the warp pad. Shockingly enough, it seems Homeworld really sent only Jasper for this mission as there was no one else in the lifeless chasm besides her and a captive Connie. Even still, the group stayed on guard as they figured the canyon could make an ideal ambush spot with its natural walls, divots in the walls to hide enemy troops in and lack of cover from ranged weapons.

"Well, have to admit that was fast," admitted Jasper grudgingly, "Where's the rest of your cult?"

"Not important," demanded Pearl, "We've come to negotiate for that girl's release."

The orange gem laughed at that. "'Negotiate?' There's nothing to discuss! Either Rose comes with me quietly or this one gets to be one of the few organic beings on Homeworld."

"Jasper, please, you don't need to do this," begged Amethyst, "Do you want to be some thug who kidnaps innocent people just because the Diamonds say so?"

"There you go again, _defect_. You don't get it. You know they'd throw you in a cell for even saying on Homeworld, right? When the Diamonds give you an order, you say how fast you can do it. There is no if. You do it, you like it, end of story."

"So you really are happy like this?" wondered Cinnabar, "Because it's seems really sad to me."

"To think I used to be exactly like you," added Adamite bitterly, "A slovenly servant to what I thought was an almighty authority. But now I see the Diamonds for what they really are: arrogant tyrants who claim they have the unalienable right to do whatever suits them. It sickens me that I was ever an ally of yours, even tangentially."

Rather than respond to the earthen gem, Jasper glared at Steven.

"I don't know how you do it, but you brainwash gems into your little puppets. It's disgusting how you can even be one of us."

"I didn't do anything! We all chose to be like this!" he replied, grasping at any straws to make her see reason.

"Yeah right! Like any self-serving proper gem would ever _willingly _choose this kind of life! You may have gotten through to them with your lies, but not me!"

Lapis Lazuli, her tolerance for Jasper's obstinacy already low, was now fed up with her ramblings.

"AAAAAH! Will you ever shut up with this?! You are such a hopeless little peon that you can't even see that the Diamonds don't care about you! The second they're done with you, they'll throw you away!"

"Of course, I know that! But as long as I am useful to them, they'll never get rid of me!"

"If you can somehow stomach that kind of role, I wholeheartedly pity you," spoke Pearl venomously, "And every word you say makes me more and more grateful I joined the rebellion. Now let Connie go before we have to hurt you."

Jasper then yanked Connie up by her hair and hung her fist at her face. "You take one step and I'll pummel this thing until it breaks."

"Jasper, wait!" pleaded Steven, "Please, just calm down! It's me you want, right? Just leave her out of it!"

"Rose…Don't you get it? You hurt me and _billions_ of other gems with what you did. Never mind all the gems that _could _have come from this miserable rock without your little rebellion or all the _lives _you took with that rebellion, but when you took Pink Diamond away from us, it hurt us. We lost one of our leaders, a being above you or me that was going to help gem-kind grow and become better. But no. You and your obsession with this planet decided that the only way to save this piece of rock was to _shatter her._ And now I know you did it all for these…things."

She dropped Connie onto the ground and stared down at the battered girl. A wave of anger and resentment welled up in her looking at her, the hostage girl bruised all over and quivering in fear.

"Maybe it's about time someone hurt you…By taking away someone you care about."

Jasper then proceeded to literally Connie while she was down, ramming her foot into her hard enough to lift her off the ground. She yelled in pain as she felt her ribcage being strained by the force and landed with a nasty thud. The Crystal Gems gawked, horrified by the sight, as Jasper then yanked Connie up by her hair and slammed her into the ground hard enough not only knock the wind out of her, but cough blood from the internal damages.

"STOP IT! PLEASE JASPER! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!" screeched Steven, the waterworks now flowing after watching his best friend be brutalized.

"When did you get so pathetic?!" barked Jasper, "You're supposed to be the scourge of all gems! The ultimate defect who destroys everything she touches, not some weak-willed imp who cries and begs for mercy when the battle starts!"

"Jasper, stop it!" admonished Pearl, "He is not Rose Quartz, he's just a child who never wanted to fight like this but Homeworld keeps forcing him!"

"Yeah, all he wants is to be left alone! That's what we all want! Why can't we just grow up and drop this whole thing already?!" offered Amethyst.

"We know the Diamonds still miss Pink Diamond and trust me Rose was not proud of what she did," added Garnet, "But the war is _over_, Jasper. It's been over for over five thousand years. That was the past, but now we can let bygones be bygones and focus on living in the now."

Jasper merely looked at the fusion with utter disdain. "You think this is something we can just forget?! How can we forget that there's one less diamond thanks to you?! Now I'm glad White Diamond burned the rest of your friends."

With that sentence, the already cold atmosphere of the Kindergarten dropped substantially. All eight of them looked at the orange invader with absolute dread.

"What are you talking about?" asked Bismuth, already knowing she would not like the answer.

"Remember how we retrieved the two outdated gems from your base with robonoids? Well, they ended up taking all the gems you had prisoner in there. White Diamond was wondering why so many of them were corrupted, so she studied them and found some of them were old Homeworld troops while others were more rebels."

"And? What did she do once she identified them?" asked Peridot, praying that her memory of Homeworld's protocol was wrong.

"The ones who were loyal were shattered but were given a proper memorial for their sacrifice. A plaque with all their names will be placed in each of the Diamonds' personal sanctuaries and several monuments commemorating the honorable gems who fell in service to their empire."

"And…the others?" asked an already queasy Lapis.

"They were shot into the nearest sun. I saw them send off the shuttle myself."

All of the Crystal Gems, even the ones who were not around for the original gem war, were horrified. Pearl and Garnet looked especially heartbroken and started sobbing for their former allies and friends. Their reactions, however, were nothing compared to Bismuth. The dreadlocked gem trembled as she fell to her knees as she recalled all the allies she once had were now gone forever. She had the urge to rush forward and bash Jasper's gem into shards, consequences be damned, but for the moment she was racked with grief.

Steven was not faring much better with the news. The poor boy was already stressed by how he and his family were targeted by Homeworld, but the thought that dozens of innocent gems who spent the last several millennia as mindless monsters, thanks to Homeworld, no less, it was too much. The boy was completely overwrought as his knees threatened to give out from under him. Even with Jasper in front of him, he completely lost his composure and he sobbed. He buried his face in his hands, kicking himself for breaking down at a time like this.

"Oh, don't feel too bad," mocked Jasper, clearly enjoying their suffering, "Those gems are in a better position now. They don't have to live as abominations and can pay for their crimes like a proper gem should."

That finally blew Bismuth's lid as she screamed as loud as she could and shaped both her hands into axes, literally crying for blood. It took Garnet, Adamite and Pearl to restrain her as Jasper once again used Connie as a meat shield by grabbing her by the scruff of her neck.

"LET ME GO! SHE'S GONNA PAY! THEY SHATTERED MY BEST FRIENDS! YOU UPPER-CRUSTS ARE ALL GONNA PAAAAAAY!" She desperately tried to escape their grasp, but before she could Steven revealed his face and spoke the last the words any of the Crystal Gems imagined he would say.

"I give up." His voice was hoarse and broken as tears streamed down his face. He even started walking towards Jasper with his head hanging down.

"WHAT?!" collectively gasped all of the Crystal Gems and a distraught Connie.

"I'm done…You win…Just please leave my friends alone…"

The other gems, even the still incensed Bismuth, all turned their attention to him. They were disgusted by what they saw; a terrified child who had finally reached his breaking point. He tried being brave, he tried so hard to keep it together for the sake of his home and his friends who needed him, but now it was finally gone. While many assumed his young age and relative inexperience compared to his peers, but there was something else at the core of his mind that brought him to his knees - responsibility.

He felt completely at fault for this. Once again, he was blamed for something Rose Quartz had done, but never before had it gone this far. He and his friends had been abducted, threatened and even invaded before, but there were never any casualties. Now, gems were _dead _because of him. His existence and rebelling had caused innocent lives to be destroyed all over some grudge that the Diamonds refused to let go of. If they were willing to shatter gems to get to him now, what was to stop them from doing it again? What would stop them from hurting _people _he loved? From how Connie's been beaten and treated like an animal, he could already tell gems looked down on any organic beings. He was not even sure Homeworld would uphold their end of the bargain and leave the Earth alone, but the alternative meant that everyone he loved would most definitely die and he knew they would rather face the guillotine than give them up. He did not have a choice in his mind. He _had _to do this, or they would all be the next victims.

Little by little the boy trudged his way to Jasper until he was at her feet. She looked down at him with pity before turning away from the boy.

"Well, at least you finally saw reason…" she admitted, her back still to him, "Before we go, though, there's one more thing I need to do."

"W-What is it?" asked a browbeaten Steven.

Jasper walked over to Connie just as she was getting back on her feet, assuming now that since Steven agreed to her terms, she was free to go. Instead, she got a backhand to the face and sent into the dirt once again before the gem loomed over her.

"I need to teach this little pest some manners!"

The Crystal Gems watched in horror as Jasper wailed on Connie without mercy, landing blow after blow until she was pressed against the canyon wall. When she tried to run away, Jasper grabbed her by the hair and forced to take more blows. She did not stop when Connie stopped resisting. She did not stop when Connie began crying uncontrollably from the pain she was in. She only stopped once the girl was begging her to stop and had several broken bones.

Steven was on the verge of hyperventilating when Jasper finally turned to face him again. The bruiser gave a malicious grin at the apparent panic he was going through, along with the disgust and horror apparent on the other Crystal Gems.

"Well?! What's the matter, aren't any of you going to stop me?" Her taunt only got the gems glaring daggers at her while Steven truly was having a panic attack, too busy with his anxiety to move.

"To think these pathetic little things are what you're fighting for…If they're all this fragile, then I don't see the point."

With that, she landed one final blow to the already beaten Connie; she sent her foot straight into her spine. A sickening crunch sounded throughout the Kindergarten as the girl's spine all but buckled under the force. None of the Crystal Gems were experts on human anatomy, but they all knew it was possible that blow paralyzed her for life.

"S… St… Steeeeveeeen…" rasped Connie, her voice garbled as blood started coming from her mouth, "H-H… H-H …. Help meeeee …. I'm …. sorry…"

She then fell into unconsciousness. The other gems were now all shedding tears and contemplating the best way to send Jasper back to Homeworld in a box.

"Amethyst, get Connie to the hospital," asked Garnet, her voice only slightly higher than a whisper, "Her mother…needs to see her."

The purple speedster was completely silent for once as she dashed over and carefully picked up the girl, worried about exacerbating her injuries. Rather than return home through the warp, she immediately dashed out of the canyon and planned to run back home through the fields surrounding Beach City.

"You…monster…" growled Lapis as she stepped forward, only for the orange invader to laugh in her face.

"Oh, really?! _You're_ gonna hurt me?"

"No. I'll _end _you."

"Ha! As if, you traitor. You've let this planet corrupt you, make you soft and worthless! That's the only thing Crystal Gems are good for; making the trash feel better about itself. Isn't that right, Rose Quartz?"

She then turned back to Steven, who had been completely still once Connie fell unconscious, only to find his body trembling. When she uttered the name of his mother, and a name he was completely sick of being called at that, he did something none of the gems had ever heard.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

He screamed louder than any of them ever heard before. If hatred and pain could be condensed into a sound; it would be identical to the noise erupting from Steven's throat. The gems even covered their ears as the sound shook the canyon and made the ground quake underneath him. As they all stared in absolute shock, his gem began glowing like a miniature sun embedded in his chest. It only grew brighter and brighter as it enveloped his body, finally cutting off his wailing in the process. The completely stupefied Crystal Gems watched as his body began to expand, losing his typical chubbiness as his muscles seemed to develop until he looked like a well-built adult man. When the light finally faded, something completely different was standing before them.

They knew it was still Steven, but the only reason they could tell was they watched the transformation happen. For one thing, he over doubled in height and was now eye-level with Garnet. His arms and legs were also substantially longer and thicker, making him even more unrecognizable from the portly child they all knew and loved. And yet these were not the most drastic changes. That would go to the fact that his entire body, head to toe, appeared to be made of pink crystal. Even his skin and hair were not spared, making him look like some sort of statue come to life.

While the Crystal Gems were surprised and dismayed, Jasper was as lost as someone could get. Here she was hoping that "Rose Quartz" was finally going to show her true form and drop this persona she developed. Instead, now she changes into some unrecognizable…thing. The bruiser's good mood from fulfilling her mission went right out the window.

"What the-?! What is this?!" she screamed at Steven. The recently transformed boy did not reply.

"Oh, you think you're so clever?!" She marched right up to his face, not noticing how they were both the same height now, only to find his eyes were closed.

"If this is your idea of a joke, I'm not laughing! Answer me, or do I have to beat the rest of your troops like I did your pet?!"

She got a reply in the form of his eyes opening. Even she was taken aback by the sight that his eyes were completely pink with no pupil. They seemed to bore right into her being and somehow sent a chill through her.

"Alright, that does it!"

She summoned her helmet and crashed right into the boy's face, only for him to barely flinch from the blow. She tried again, but instead found his holding her face back with two of his fingers.

"H-Huh?! How are you-?"

"Shut. Up."

His voice was several octaves lower, disturbing the Crystal Gems to their core. Hearing a tone so deep and guttural from Steven was wrong on a fundamental level. To make matters worse, his tone was definition of malicious. Every iota made it clear he would love nothing more than to see Jasper in pain and agony.

"You little-!"

Her taunt was stopped when Steven kicked her in the stomach so quickly, she did not even see his foot move. From that one kick, she was sent flying over thirty feet and plowed through the ground like a comet falling from orbit.

"Whoa…" breathed Lapis. The others all shared her sense of shock.

Before any of them could even blink, Steven was on top of Jasper and sent a fist straight at her face. The orange gem finally decided to dodge, but only barely moved aside before his punch made an even deeper hole in the ground. From there, her reflexes were pushed to their limits as this new Steven relentlessly pounded away at her until he finally got around her guard by sweeping her legs from under her. Once she was down on the ground, he grabbed her by the leg and slammed her face-first before tossing him with all his might into the canyon wall. She was only a few feet away from flying straight out of the Kindergarten altogether.

* * *

The Off-Colors parked their ship on the rim of the Kindergarten about a hundred feet further in from where the warp pad was. While they were equally surprised that there was no ambush waiting for them, they were even more surprised as they watched the events unfold before them. After hearing Steven's deafening screams, they watched him be engulfed by light from his own gem before suddenly pounding the daylights out of Jasper.

"Wow look at him go!" commented Rutile's left head.

"She can't even touch him now!" cheered her right head.

"I must say, I-I never expected the boy to have it in him," thought Rhodonite as she watched curiously, "Maybe Pearl taught him this in advance?"

"Steven will change into something completely different from the first time!" announced Padparadscha.

"Never mind…"

"Something's…very wrong…" meditated Fluorite.

"What do you mean? Steven's turned this entire fight around with this new form! How is this a bad thing?" questioned Rhodonite.

"I think I understand," answered Topaz, "I've seen Steven fight before. Even when Aquamarine had him on the ropes before, when he fought he never messed around. He got straight to the point and finished off everyone. But now…It's like he's just playing. If he's really that strong, he should have already bubbled Jasper by now."

"So…What should we do?"

"I think I'll go down there and talk with the other about it. You all stay up here in case this turns out to be a trap and we need an escape, got it?"

"Yes, Captain Topaz!" responded all four Off-Colors. With that said, Topaz floated her way down to the bottom of the Kindergarten and made her way along the wall to the others as the fight intensified.

* * *

The transformed Steven was not fighting Jasper. He was singlehandedly mopping the floor with her, and yet even the Crystal Gems would consider that an understatement. Every hit she sent at him was blocked, every strategy she tried was turned against her and every defense she put up quickly fell. As she grew more and more frantic, trying everything she could think of to maybe gain the slightest advantage in their struggle, Steven's expression never changed. That chilling stare with his blank eyes scared her more than anything ever had, and his mouth set in a grim line made the feeling worse.

As if his hand-to-hand combat skills and absurd physical strength and speed were not enough, he started utilizing multiple weapons to further humiliate her. One minute he would summon a pink whip and lash at her or tie her up to make Jasper even more vulnerable. Then he would pull out a spear and smack her around before trying to run her through. And then later he would summon a pair of gauntlets in order to punch her into oblivion. The situation was looking worse and worse for her as she was quickly running out of options and energy as the beatdown continued.

After several minutes, Amethyst finally warped back to the canyon only for no one to notice her return.

"Hey guys, Connie's back home, her mom flipped out but…"

She then noticed everyone's eyes were glued to what sounded like a fight and soon pushed her way to the front. She then watched a muscular man seemingly chiseled out of pink crystal block a headbutt from Jasper and then send a brutal punch to her midsection that left her winded long enough for him to start slapping her around with several strikes from a spear he summoned. It was only when she saw the weapon in his hands along with the glowing spot on his stomach that Amethyst caught on.

"WHOA! Is that Steven?!"

The only response she got was a nod from Pearl.

"Alright, man! Kick her butt! Woooooooooooo!"

"Topaz?" asked Peridot, noticing the yellow gem approach, "Where's the ship?"

"Resting above the canyon. We're pretty sure there's no surprise from Homeworld here, but they're still there keeping the engines running in case we need it."

"What business do you have down here with us?" asked Adamite.

"I wanted to know what's going on. Is that thing really-?"

"Yes, that is Steven," answered Garnet, "He changed into that new form after watching Jasper brutally injure Connie."

"Oh no, that's terrible!"

"Yeah, she's in really bad shape, but at least Steven is fighting off Jasper!" said Amethyst.

"While his fighting prowess is leagues above what it was before," spoke Peridot as she kept her eyes glued to the action, "There is a downside to his metamorphosis."

"What? What's wrong with him?"

"Look at the way he fights now. You'll see soon enough," spoke Pearl in a whisper.

As all nine Crystal Gems refocused on the battle, Steven was in the midst of holding Jasper in a headlock. As the gem choked and struggled in vain, her opponent flung her several feet into the air before leaping after her with a massive jump. Once he reached her, he sent a kick to propel her even further in the air before summoning a whip and wrapping it around her midsection. With one mid-air spin, Steven sent her plummeting back into the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Jasper barely recovered in time to spin-dash out of the way before Steven landed feet-first and doubled the size of the hole.

"He's so…ruthless. He's barely giving her a chance to breathe," realized Topaz, actually cringing at some of the blows Jasper was getting.

"Exactly. Steven's never been this merciless," responded Pearl, "He's clearly overpowering her, but he's just toying with her instead of bubbling her. He's clearly letting his anger towards what she did to Connie distract him."

"Well yeah, he's a little peeved, I can't really blame him," shrugged Amethyst, "But what's so bad about that? We'd all be in the same shoes right now if Steven was hurt!"

"I have a horrible feeling about this," said Garnet.

The conversation was broken up again as Jasper actually dropped to her knees. Steven calmly strode towards her, his vacant angry expression wavering slightly at the gesture.

"Alright…I give in," admitted the orange gem with a great deal of embarrassment, "It's obvious…I can't beat you. You win, I'll leave Earth. Happy now?"

Steven's glassy eyes widened a bit, before a new look donned his face. It was a cruel sneer that sent chills up everyone's spines. Instead of an answer, he rushed forward with blinding speed and punched her with a gauntlet so hard an impression of his armored fist was visible in her back. Amethyst's enthusiasm was replaced with a disgusted wince as even she felt that was uncalled for. The surrendering Jasper did not even have to time to yell in pain as her body dematerialized and was forced into her gemstone to heal.

After several seconds in silence, the Crystal Gems wondered why Steven was merely standing over the fallen gem glaring at it instead of bubbling it. Amethyst decided to ask the question first.

"Um, Steven, buddy? That was really cool and all, but maybe you should bubble her already?"

The boy turned to face her with the same glare without saying a word.

"Dude, relax, it's all done! Look, I'll do it for you, okay?"

She stepped forward to do just that, only for Steven to grip her shoulder. He then spat a glob of saliva straight at Jasper's gemstone, much to the confusion of the others.

"What the heck, man?! What'd you do that for?"

"I'm not done…"

"What?!"

"I said," Steven snarled with absolute loathing, "I'M NOT DONE WITH HER!"

He then flung Amethyst with the hand still holding her shoulder hard enough to send her flying almost a hundred feet. He then faced the suddenly reformed Jasper once again.

"Wh-What the-?! How am I-?"

Her rambling could not get much farther before Steven pounced on her again, the fist she dodged leaving a dent in the ground. The Crystal Gems were all watching, now completely outraged by what they saw.

"Steven Quartz Universe! What on Earth are you thinking, young man?!" scolded Pearl. She tried to march up and smack some sense into her surrogate son only for Garnet to beat her top the punch.

"STEVEN, PLEASE STOP!" she yelled as she ran ahead with her gauntlets drawn, "YOU'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOURSELF!"

"Forgive what?! You saw something, didn't you?" asked Bismuth as she tried to hold Garnet back.

"Yes! We have to stop him before he goes too far!"

"What's he planning?! Spit it out already!" demanded Cinnabar.

"Steven's completely lost himself. He just forcibly healed Jasper so he can keep attacking her. I'm certain he'll do it again."

"Well, we could all have come to that conclusion on our own!" griped Peridot, "What will the lead to that's so horrible?"

"He's not just aiming to beat Jasper. He fully intends to shatter her."

**Tune in next week for the conclusion! Side note: What a fitting cliffhanger for Halloween!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	37. No Mercy

**And now the conclusion...**

With that ominous prediction out in the open, the nine Crystal Gems rushed forward and entered the fray. While none of them ever imagined they would be actively fighting Steven instead of merely sparring with him, they all knew they could not go through with this.

As the supercharged hybrid's massacre of his orange foe continued, he was briefly overwhelmed by the charge. The gems bombarded him from every angle to the point where even his heightened reflexes were pushed to their limits. When one of them did manage to land a hit, though, they quickly found that the crystalline look of his body was not for show. The blows barely fazed him as if they were genuinely hitting a wall. The downside was that this wall could then throw up bubble shields to force them back and truly make hitting him impossible.

"What the?!" gasped Jasper as she saw Garnet and Bismuth try to push Steven back, "Why are you-?!"

She was quickly answered, though, by Pearl striking her several times with her spear and forcing her to put up her defenses again.

"We are _not _your allies now. We are only doing this because we know Steven can't stomach the thought of taking a life. Mark my words, I will _personally _make you suffer for crippling Connie like that, you disgraceful piece of schist."

With her venomous tone leaving no room for doubt, the Kindergarten was filled with a three-way brawl between Jasper trying to escape back to the warp pad, the transformed Steven looking to avenge his best friend and the other Crystal Gems trying to both hold off the latter while also downing the former.

Steven, much to his family's chagrin, was putting all their training to excellent use as he wove in and out of fights. While he was definitely at a numbers disadvantage, the versatility and spontaneity of his multiple weapons combined with his drastically heightened abilities made him a walking force of nature. Everything from throwing the Crystal Gems into each other, switching weapons on a dime to catch them off-guard or simply leaping over them so he could once again attack Jasper.

The sole Homeworld gem in the fray was not defenseless, though, as her being suddenly healed by Steven meant all her previous injuries were gone. Combined with the life-or-death stakes of the fight, Jasper knew she had no choice but to retreat back to the Diamonds where there would be several million lightyears between her and the now-murderous leader of the Crystal Gems. The only problem was the ten foes standing between her and her goal with all of them wanting her head on a pike.

* * *

The Off-Colors, meanwhile, were no longer keeping an eye on the radar for any invading vessels. The idea of this being the beginning of some larger plan was all but written-off. Instead, all four of them were watching the anarchy that was going on beneath them as the massive brawl raged on.

"This is getting insane! What are they all doing down there?!" shouted Rhodonite as she watched Steven fling Amethyst into the air like a ragdoll.

"It looks like they all want to beat Jasper…" speculated Rutile's left head.

"…But Steven's fighting everyone, too!" finished her right head.

"Duck, Captain Topaz!" warned Padparadscha, futilely hoping her predictions would somehow help.

"They need us," stated Fluorite, "Before this gets worse."

"But…Captain Topaz said-" warned Rhodonite, but the much larger fusion cut her off.

"We know this isn't a trap. They'd have sprung it by now."

"She's got a point. Why would they let Jasper get clobbered like that before?" added Rutile's right head.

"But none of us know how to fight hand-to-hand except…" spoke the left head as she looked towards the sweating Rhodonite.

"O-Oh boy…"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine up here. But they need you more," Fluorite spoke with all the confidence she could muster. The four-armed fighter felt her knees shake, but also knew she was the only viable option. Before she could fully question her sanity, she slammed the button on the bridge to open up the bay doors and leapt out into the roaring winds to the battle below.

* * *

Peridot and Bismuth tried to double team Steven, the former using some metal plundered from the desolate machines around her while the latter launched a direct attack, but almost everything they tried was dodged. Everything else was actually redirected back at one of the other gems around them. This meant Amethyst got a face-full of metal plating as she was trying to hold off an oncoming Jasper meaning now she took a spin-dash with her guard down.

"Watch where you put that stuff, Peri!" admonished her partner, "The last thing you want is to give him an advantage!"

"Not like I have much of a choice! His reflexes are unreal!"

"We just have to dogpile him!" said Topaz as she charged in. The wild hybrid saw their attack a mile away and summoned his shield to intercept. Before they clashed, though, the yellow tank split into her two components and ran alongside him before laying into him, each wielding a smaller but crushing mace. The strategy seemed to work at first as their dual attack put him on edge, quickly trying to dissect this new tactic.

It was the perfect opportunity for an ambush and Pearl saw to use it. Moving with a lethal silence developed after centuries of training, she lunged right at her pupil with her spear poised to strike his heart. The maneuver worked, albeit with less definite results. What should have been a fatal blow to almost any other opponent only succeeded in mildly annoying him as her weapon clanged against Steven's rock-hard body. With a crushing backhand Pearl was sent flying right into, conveniently enough, Jasper making her umpteenth attempt at a bid for freedom.

After recovering from the hit, she bolted past Lapis trying to knock her down with her aquatic fists, only to find Garnet lobbing fireballs at her. While gems could not suffer the same internal damage from burns as humans, any one of those projectiles would still hurt enough for her to almost wish to be poofed again. Jasper danced backwards, trying to keep an eye out for any potential threats besides the enraged fusion, until the warp pad was only thirty feet away. With freedom in her grasp, she turned her back as she made one final sprint towards her goal.

That changed, however, when one half of Topaz slammed into her from the side like a ton of bricks after being thrown by Steven. The bulky gems tried to regain their footing, only to be paralyzed as they saw Steven conjure a pink whip in one hand and a matching spear in the air. In a literal flash he brought the two together and formed a five-foot tall bow with an energy arrow materializing on the string. Both gems scrambled out of the way as he let the shot go, the arrow quickly turning into ten that made several small craters in the ground.

The other half of Topaz tried to blindside him with a blow to the head, but instead he separated the weapons in an instant and lashed her arm with the whip while tripping her legs with the spear. The defensive gem lost her weapon and was face-first on the ground in one fell swoop. Steven then knelt down and grabbed Topaz by the scruff of her neck, her match charging forward in a frenzy to save her…

…Before Rhodonite, to the complete surprise of everyone, fell right on top of Steven with her sword drawn! With all the momentum of her fall behind her, the four-armed fighter managed a direct hit with enough force to not only free Topaz, but also make Steven show the first real injury in the fight. Her sword was embedded straight in his back with several cracks surrounding it. The seemingly invulnerable fighter let out a hoarse scream as pain racked his new body for the first time and fell to the ground with the blade comically sticking out of him.

As he laid there, the Kindergarten was silent save for the occasional breeze. Rhodonite approached him, her old anxiety quickly rising back to the surface as she stared at his fallen form.

"I-I-I-I-Is h-h-he… D-D-D-Did I-I…"

"Relax, Rhodonite," advised Garnet as she walked up next to her with her shades off, "He'll be fine. He's taken worse hits than that before he was like this."

"Granted, since this form is something we've never seen before, we'll have to keep him under constant observation to monitor his condition," warned Peridot, "But at the very least, this whole debacle is finally over."

"Yeah… It's a shame he went berserk like that, though," sighed Amethyst.

"What do you mean?" asked Lapis.

"If he could do that anytime, imagine what he'd be like against Homeworld! He would be the biggest butt-kicker ever!"

"There's no doubt about that," agreed Pearl, "But for now, we need to get him home and wait for him to recover."

"Plus, I'm not sure I ever wanna see him like that again," grumbled Bismuth, "Sure, he's an amazing fighter like this, but he went completely insane from it! I spent several thousand years in a bubble for acting the same way!"

"He almost shot Topaz!" screeched the left-gemmed half of the fusion as she cradled her partner in her arms, "He is NEVER doing this again! Never!"

"Now there's just one last thing to take care of…" muttered Lapis as she and the other Crystal Gems circled Jasper, cornering her against the canyon wall. The once-fearsome bruiser was literally backed into a corner, desperately scanning for a way out.

As they closed in, Rhodonite moved to reclaim her sabre from Steven's body. She removed it in one quick pull, but freeing her weapon was not the only effect. The cracks in Steven's form instantly began to heal and in only seconds, the damage was completely gone. The transformed boy leapt high into the sky and summoned a bubble around him.

"What the heck?!" shouted Cinnabar, clearly taken aback by his recovery.

"Everybody run!" panicked Bismuth as Steven rocketed himself downward right towards Jasper. The trained soldier, though, quickly took the opportunity his distraction gave him and made a beeline for the warp pad. Steven missed her by several feet, but the massive shockwave he made was enough to send her face-first into the dirt.

"Wonderful," droned Adamite, "His healing factor has also been enhanced. At this rate, nothing short of a weapon of mass destruction could stop him."

"Wait, that's it!" realized Pearl, "The Sun Incinerator, couldn't its blasters take him out?"

"Doubtful," admitted the now-fused Topaz, "With a shield like that around him, he'd just shrug off whatever we use on him and then knock the ship of the sky!"

"Alright, we need to be a unified team here," ordered Garnet, "There are nine gems here and only two of them. Five of us need to corral Steven before he gets out of hand while the rest work on bubbling Jasper. We can't let her get away or else she'll just stay on Homeworld where we can't touch her."

As the unofficial meeting ended, the gems dashed to where they felt they were needed most. Topaz and Pearl joined Amethyst, Lapis and Bismuth in stopping Steven. That left Adamite and Garnet to help Cinnabar and Rhodonite in taking down Jasper.

The former group took Garnet's strategy in stride by not giving the raging Steven a moment to breathe, constantly throwing something new in his way so he would have to put all his effort into stopping them instead of finding a route to Jasper. Since he had trained in this exact same scenario several times before, though, they found he was able to keep up disturbingly well with their bombardment. Lapis tried divebombing him from above, Bismuth would constantly switch up the shape of her hands, Topaz continually split up and re-fused to throw him off, Amethyst made liberal use of her super speed to trip him up and Pearl even tried a more direct fighting style emphasizing thrusts over swings. Even with all this on top of the numbers advantage, Steven's already impressive defenses with his shield and bubbles combined with his ludicrously enhanced strength and dexterity meant he was far from overwhelmed.

Thankfully, the other group was having more luck with Jasper. While she may have been fully healed from her first thrashing from Steven, exhaustion was once again setting in and now she had four hostile opponents now with the sole focus of defeating her. Between Adamite's cunning use of terrakinesis, Cinnabar's endless supply of flames, Garnet's already impressive hand-to-hand skills and Rhodonite's swordplay she was in a precarious position. It took every ounce of her inherent warrior instinct, her top-notch reflexes and the occasional bout of luck for her to stay alive.

The fights were not mutually exclusive, though, as the Crystal Gems had to often switch places in order to keep the two apart. A particularly hard hit from Steven sent Amethyst flying, but Garnet jumped in before the rampaging hybrid could get closer to Jasper. A nasty blow from the Homeworld gem, though, briefly knocked Peridot unconscious and thus Lapis had to pick up the slack.

As time wore on, however, Steven never seemed to slow down as he pushed the Gems harder and harder until even they were now struggling to even remotely stand up to him. Little by little, he grew closer to Jasper, the exact thing the Crystal Gems were looking to avoid for the boy's sake, when Garnet came up with a risky idea. After managing to actually knock Steven down with a kick below the belt, she pulled Amethyst and Pearl aside.

"We need to fuse, now!"

"What?!" gasped Pearl, "Isn't that too extreme?"

"Dude is it that serious?" gawked Amethyst.

"I wouldn't suggest it if we had another choice, but right now we don't!"

"Guys, we need help!" exclaimed Lapis as she had to resort to grabbing Jasper by the arms and flinging her away to keep both her and Steven occupied.

"Quick, now's our chance!"

Realizing they were getting nowhere with their current approach, the main trio formed a loose triangle and went through their fusion dance as quickly as physically possible. The three turned into amorphous blobs of light recognizable only by their stones until they began to reshape themselves and grow exponentially. Their plan worked as Steven finally turned his attention away from Jasper and onto the massive six-armed fusion of his three childhood guardians.

"Steven, that's enough," spoke Alexandrite. Her voice may have been a whisper, but it carried more power than a hurricane. Even still, Steven was not intimidated and turned his back to her. He was forced to look at her again, though, as she suddenly appeared in front of him thanks to Amethyst's super speed. His expression finally changed, a slight show of surprise, but his serious demeanor returned when the titanic woman threw all three of her right hands in one punch.

The boy was literally sent flying halfway across the Kindergarten with what sounded like a sonic boom, the other Crystal Gems having to dodge his rocketing form, until he finally regained his footing. Steven was unperturbed, however, and leapt over the shorter canyon walls around him to leap up to high ground. With such an opponent, he felt he would need as much space as possible.

Alexandrite, again much to his surprise, had already beaten him to the punch and stood there with none other than Jasper held tight in one of her hands.

"If you want her, then you fight me."

With a simple squeeze of the fusion's hand, Jasper was poofed once again and her gemstone was placed in the safety of her massive head of green hair. Steven's stalwart expression remained as he charged headfirst at his new, utterly massive opponent with his signature shield drawn. Alexandrite merely stood there as the incensed boy leapt at her, waiting until he was a foot away before swatting him away with a backhand. She missed, however, as Steven suddenly leapt in mid-air and dodged several more strikes until he was staring the colossus in the eye. He launched himself forward with another floating jump and tried to ram two shields right in her face. Instead, her second mouth suddenly opened and let out a massive stream of flames.

Even with his crystalline body ensuring he would not be roasted to cinders, he still felt searing pain from the blast and was forced to return to ground level with a protective bubble around him. Alexandrite took the opportunity to charge, every step of hers causing small tremors in the ground, and summoned Sardonyx's hammer. She sent it slamming not into Steven himself, but into the ground near him so he would be catapulted skyward. The plan worked and the boy launched several feet by the massive quake, but then countered by summoning a whip and latching onto Alexandrite's foot. He used the momentum of the swing around her legs and try tying her up, but he was stopped when her bottom-right hand summoned a spear and smacked him away.

Steven barely got a moment to breathe, however, when Alexandrite dashed over and punched him hard enough to leave a several-foot long trench in the ground.

"That's enough!" yelled Alexandrite with more force.

"MAKE ME!" roared Steven with inhuman ferocity, his already deepened voice a guttural growl.

With a whip in one hand and his shield in another, he plowed straight into her with enough velocity behind him to push the fusion back a few inches. He then seamlessly merged his weapons into a yo-yo and proceeded to deflect every blow Alexandrite sent at him. Despite her having six arms and far greater physical strength than any of his individual opponents, he managed to block every single swing she sent using the massive toy on one arm and his trademark shield on the other. She only managed to gain the upper hand when a massive blast of cold from all three of her right hands and forced him to dodge or be frozen solid.

With more space between them, Alexandrite went on the offensive by copying Amethyst's strategy of using super speed to circle around her and slashing at him over and over again with whips. Instead of one weapon, however, she conjured three and put up a lashing so severe even Steven's body gained visible scratches. It only stopped when he finally summoned a bubble around himself and gave himself enough time to heal. It also gave Alexandrite time to literally pick up the bubble and press against it with all her might, causing her aching opponent inside to strain his powers to the limit to avoid it popping.

As the game of keeping each other outwitted continued, Alexandrite suddenly stopped pressing and instead chucked Steven and his bubble away like tossing a ball. The second she released, the shield came down and the hybrid recovered quickly as he dodged Sugilite's flail being suddenly swung at him by pushing himself downwards. He hit the ground literally running as he and Alexandrite readied for another clash. The former readied a spear in each hand while the latter brought out a pair of gauntlets on her middle set of hands. The two met with enough force to cause a crater underneath them to form as their weapons struggled against each other. Neither one gained much ground as the remaining Crystal Gems watched the ensuing feud from the other side of the Kindergarten.

"Holy cow…" gaped Lapis, awestruck and horrified by the scale of the battle.

"It's a genuine shame," lamented Adamite, "Steven wields such incredible power in that form, but his mental state is so unstable that it's eroded all sense of reason. If only he could access it without losing himself."

"As much as I agree with that statement," admitted Peridot, "I would also accept this being a one-time thing. I'd rather not have a rampaging half-gem capable of effortlessly demolishing our entire force running loose the next time he loses his temper."

"Agreed," grumbled Topaz, "That's not the Steven I ever want to see again."

"Have you considered that you are taking this affair a bit too personally?" asked Adamite. She immediately regretted that as the stocky gem gave a glare so harsh it could cut through solid stone.

"Guys, what can we do?" asked Cinnabar, "There's gotta be some way to get Steven to back down!"

"W-Well…" stuttered Rhodonite, "I'd like to help here, but…"

"I get it," finished Bismuth, "You know you'd just get in the way. I can't stand that feeling either, but I've learned you've gotta back off at some point. If you don't…You might do something really stupid."

With that somber thought on their minds, they turned back to the fight. Alexandrite managed to knock Steven away, but the boy immediately recovered and made another leap straight for the fusion's face. She sent a pair of fists hurtling at him, but he managed to use the limbs as steppingstones to propel himself higher and actually got above her. That did not last long, though, as Alexandrite took a single leap and propelled herself several hundred feet into the sky. She then summoned Opal's bow and readied an enormous energy arrow.

"This ends now!" she proclaimed as she fired, only for Steven to resolutely summon a bubble in order to protect himself from the barrage. What he could not stop, however, was Alexandrite catapulting herself right towards him like a massive meteorite. The crater made from her landing made the last one look pitiful by comparison at over thirty feet deep and twenty feet around. Alexandrite was unharmed, but Steven was clearly dazed from the blow as he was groaning while being held down by all six of his opponent's hands to ensure he could not get away in case he got a third wind.

Steven tried to struggle, tried to think of any way out of the situation, but he drew blanks. He could summon a bubble to break her grip, but fatigue was finally catching up with him. He had no idea how long he had been battling for, but even his newfound power had a limit. Combine that with the fact that Alexandrite seemed more stable than ever and he realized he had no choice but to concede. This caused another swell of hatred and loathing to surge through him.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" he screamed in absolute fury, "WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING HER?! CONNIE COULD BE DEAD!"

The shock of hearing this new Steven finally speak multiple sentences subsided quickly, though, and Alexandrite answered.

"We know, Steven. What Jasper did was inexcusable, and we _will _deal with her. But Garnet saw what you would do. You were planning on shattering her."

"AND THAT'S A BAD THING?!"

"Yes, Steven. We agree that Jasper must face the consequences of her crimes, but you shouldn't have to dirty your hands for it."

"I'M A CRYSTAL GEM TOO! I SHOULD HAVE A SAY IN ALL THIS!"

"True, but you didn't give your say. You went straight for shattering and when we tried to handle the matter differently, you attacked us. We all understand you're upset and angry, but that doesn't give you the right to annihilate anyone you feel like in a frenzy!"

With that cutting remark, Steven's retort died in his throat. He stopped his futile struggling and his eyes closed, his crystalline form looking remarkably peaceful compared to his earlier outrage. With her foe finally defeated, Alexandrite quickly defused back into the main trio of Crystal Gems who looked at the fallen Steven with a mix of confusion, anxiety and relief.

"Man… That was nuts," breathed Amethyst in between breaths, "He really… Knows what he's doin'…"

"Understatement of the millennia," griped Pearl, "I'm still baffled where he learned half of these things!"

"Either way, it's over now. We'll bubble Jasper so she won't cause any more trouble, then take Steven home."

"Guys?" asked Lapis, flying over them, "Is it finally over? How's Steven?"

"He's more than likely unconscious," answered Pearl, "And we have no idea how long he'll be in this…gem-form for, but at the very least he's finally stopped going berserk. It's safe now."

Lapis flew off to tell the others the news. In a few minutes, the other remaining Crystal Gems gathered around the unconscious boy. They stared at him in mostly shock, but also a touch of awe.

"Incredible…" mumbled Peridot, "His body seems to be entirely made of his gemstone. It could take me months to fully comprehend his physiology now, but this is something unreal."

"Can you bring him back to normal?" asked Topaz.

"It's a mystery. I'm literally dealing with a one-of-a-kind specimen with no chance of being replicated. It's obvious the transformation was triggered by emotional trauma, but that's all I have to go on from this point."

"If only he could retain his rationale like this," pondered Adamite with a hand on her chin, "Then he would easily be able to handle anything Homeworld throws at him shy of an interplanetary weapon of mass destruction."

"I think I'd rather have the old Steven back…" moped Cinnabar, "I mean I thought I was crazy, but at least I know who my friends are."

"He was just emotionally overwrought, that's all," assured Garnet, "After all, he was capable of reasoning once he saw there was no way to fight his way out."

Amethyst casually reached into her hair to find the Jasper's gem tangled inside. She stared at the lifeless orange stone for a moment, pitying her distant "sister" and how she refused to let go of her grudge. How she could have become an ally if she only made the right choices…

…Until the unconscious Steven sent a glob of saliva right at the gemstone before any of them, even Garnet, could react. Jasper's stone began to glow as her body was once again forced to reform and Steven stood up, right as rain and his face still set in a cold grimace. Once Jasper was restored, a look of genuine terror quickly appearing when she realized what had happened, she immediately leapt out of the crater and ran for the hills.

She got twenty feet away before Steven leapt out of the crater with enough force to scatter the other gems and slammed her into the ground. He summoned a gauntlet on one hand while the other gripped her neck, clearly aiming for a killing blow to her gem.

"STEVEN, STOP!" shouted Lapis as she rocketed towards him on her wings with enough speed to catch him off-guard. The two tumbled for a bit in the grass before coming to a stop. Seeing an ample opportunity, Garnet shot a beam of ice from her hand straight at Jasper. She was frozen instantly and rendered completely immobile.

Steven saw this and got back up, the gauntlet still around his hand, and glared right at his frozen foe. Lapis, however, stood between them with her arms spread.

"Steven, please listen to me!" she begged, "You don't have to do this! You don't have to be like her!"

That statement confused him, though the only sign was his fist lowering slightly.

"I know exactly what Jasper would do in this situation, Steven. She'd shatter anyone who stops her mission with no hesitation, even if they did nothing wrong. I spent _months _fused with her as Malachite. I know her better than anyone, and I know you _never _want to be like her."

Now Steven's fist was down at his side and his guard seemed to be lowering.

"All that time she only thought about revenge. She blamed you and the Crystal Gems for separating her from Homeworld, every day struggling to break out of the ocean and destroy you. And all that time, all I could do was push back and stop her. I tried reasoning with her at first, but she just beat revenge into my head even harder until I finally gave up. She never changed, Steven. Isn't that sad?"

Lapis started to hover closer to him as she continued. "You wanna know the really scary part, Steven? I actually _agreed _with her at the end. I blamed the other Crystal Gems for putting me in that stupid mirror, and eventually I started to think like she did. I realized just how strong Malachite was and how I could finally be free like that… Even if it meant hurting you."

Now she was only a few inches from him, staring right into his glassy eyes.

"You were the one who never gave up on me, Steven. Even after I stole the entire ocean, you knew I wasn't bad. Even when I accidentally ratted you out to Homeworld and brought Jasper here to begin with, you still wanted to save me. Even when I literally attacked you as Malachite, you wanted to make sure I was safe once I was back to normal. That's the Steven I know and love, the kid who showed me nothing but kindness even when I royally screwed up. You don't have to be violent and cruel like Jasper."

She placed her arms around his shoulders, shocked by how cold and callous his crystalline body felt. "Please Steven, we understand how you feel. We know you're scared for your friend and you want to make sure Jasper doesn't hurt her or anyone else ever again… But there are ways of doing it that don't involve sinking to her level or turning against us. You've done your best to help everyone you've met so far. Why stop now?"

Steven finally reciprocated the hug as he felt a few tears drip down his chest. He just now realized he was several feet taller than Lapis now, having to look down at her to see her watery eyes. She smiled at him, clearly relieved that he had finally calmed down…

…Before Steven suddenly pushed her aside into the dirt. With only a few steps he reached the frozen Jasper and, just as the rest of Crystal Gems climbed out of the crater, he summoned a gauntlet and aimed right for Jasper's gem. The ice gave way like paper under the blow and barely slowed him down until he reached his target. With a deafening crack, Jasper's gem split into multiple pieces. The rest of the ice still stood, but the gem within blinked out of existence.

Steven stood there, a malicious, triumphant smile on his face until he noticed something. His hand was shaking. He was briefly puzzled, having barely felt a thing from the impact, before his mind caught up with him. All he could think about before now was seeing Connie brutally injured before him, but now he finally grasped everything that happened. Him attacking Jasper, forcing her to reform once she was beaten, then _beating up_ _the other Crystal Gems _when they tried to stop him. They even had to use Alexandrite to stop him, but even that failed since he lied to and manipulated them all so he could keep fighting! And now he looked down at the pile of orange shards, now fallen to the bottom of the ice block thanks to the sudden unoccupied space, and felt his whole body convulse.

The Crystal Gems watched how he was once again consumed with pink light, only the process went in reverse as his body shrunk back to its original size before the brightness receded back into his gem. The boy that had only a few minutes ago was utterly destroying them in combat was now curled into a ball sobbing his eyes out. Pearl simply picked him up and cradled him in her arms like a mother holding her child as he continued crying. He tried to mutter apologies as best as he could through his hysteria, but the gem merely shushed him and told him to relax. Garnet fished the remains of Jasper out of the ice and bubbled them, somehow feeling responsible for disposing of the mess. The rest of them merely walked back to the warp pad, completely silent despite the plethora of things they needed to discuss now.

**Annnnnd...Done. Hope you all enjoyed reading that as much as I loved creating it! Almost two years in the making and now it's reality! Next time, though, it's time to start unpacking all of this.**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	38. Aftermath

**So after all that chaos, how will both sides of our conflict move on?**

It was another sunny day in Delmarva, but the Crystal Gems had nothing to celebrate. All of them were currently outside on the beach waiting for Pearl to check on Steven for the fifth time that day. Ever since they returned from the episode at the Kindergarten three days ago, the boy refused to leave his bed. It was only because the others religiously checked on him that they were sure he was still regularly eating and drinking.

The slender gem emerged from the house to the expectant faces of the others. "He ate his lunch, but he still won't say anything. Plus, he needs more tissues."

"Seriously?" gawked Peridot, "He's already gone through three boxes! Has he stopped crying at any point since yesterday?"

"Well, we know he was asleep, so there's that…" thought Lapis.

"Actually, he woke up at least three times last night," rebutted Pearl, "It looks like he's having nightmares after all of this."

"Geez, can't we find a way to cheer him up already?" grumbled Cinnabar, "I've never seen him so…"

"Traumatized," finished Adamite, "And no, at this point he's so psychologically damaged that he needs time to come to grips with his situation. Trying to force optimism from him would just isolate him further and stagnate any progress."

"I just can't believe any of it," remarked Rutile's left head.

"He's usually so gentle and kind, but now…" sulked the right head.

"Garnet, you got anything?" asked Bismuth, desperately looking for any bright spot in this situation.

"He'll get better eventually, but Adamite's right that he needs time. What's bothering him more than anything isn't just Jasper, but the lengths he went to. Being violent and manipulative are so unlike him that it's ripping him apart."

"Well, while we're on the subject of what to do," said Peridot, "We need materials to repair the warp pad protector. I couldn't salvage anything after Jasper fried it and _someone else_ smashed through it…"

Bismuth giggled nervously at that last statement before hanging her head in shame. Garnet, however, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get to looking for more places you can scavenge Homeworld tech for. In the meantime, we have plenty of issues here. We still need to be on alert since the Diamonds are not going to be happy."

"So that means more patrols?" asked Rhodonite.

"Right, and also more training for you courtesy of Pearl."

"I might as well…" sighed the motherly gem, "One of my students is in the hospital, potentially paralyzed, and the other one is emotionally broken."

"Wait, paralyzed?!" shouted Amethyst.

"I got a call from her mother a few hours ago. Jasper essentially tried to break her spine and now she has severe damage to her nervous system and right now she's in a coma. Best case scenario, she'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life after extensive surgery. Worst case scenario…She'll never wake up."

Topaz literally flopped onto the sand on her back, too frustrated to even bother standing up. "Why does Homeworld keep doing this?! Why do they need to destroy everything?!"

"Trust me, Rose felt the same way," said Pearl, "There's no point driving yourself insane trying to deduce their reasoning."

"That does remind me, Topaz," spoke Garnet, "There's one thing I need you to do today."

"What? Run maintenance on the Sun Incinerator?

"Well, that would be a good idea, but that's not what I meant. You need to visit Steven in his room."

The yellow fusion stood up and crossed her arms, clearly nervous about the prospect.

"You are the only gem here who hasn't been by to see him. I get that you were frightened when he attacked you, but you need to know he's not like that anymore."

"And hopefully won't be like that ever again…" muttered the captain bitterly, only to find Fluorite looking right at her.

"He's scared too…" said the massive maternal figure, "Just like you…"

Topaz could not deny that her ship's engineer had a point. She reluctantly trudged up towards the porch, only to be surprised to see Padparadscha walking with her.

"Topaz will go see Steven in his room! I will accompany her," was all the tiny sapphire said, but Topaz appreciated the gesture. Perhaps having the optimistic little psychic by her side would make the trip easier.

The duo walked inside, climbed up the stairs and found Steven in exactly the same place he has been for the past three days. Aside from bathroom breaks and needing to satisfy the very brief twinges of hunger or thirst, the boy spent all his time under his own bedsheets alternating between bouts of self-loathing and wallowing in grief when he was not struggling to sleep through frequent nightmares.

Topaz had to admit the contrast between the cruel crystalline fighter who leveled an energy bow at her, and this was like night and day, but even now she felt her throat seize up. Fear gripped her mind and made her legs itch to run back downstairs, but Padparadscha refused to give up. She actually pushed on her back and insisted she go forward.

"S-Steven?" stuttered the fusion. She only got a slight rustling of the covers for an answer.

"Steven…I…Don't really know what to make of all this. None of us do…But…"

"Topaz will try to express herself, but fail," announced the sapphire, much to her captain's embarrassment.

"Ugh…What I mean is…We all want you to know…"

"Topaz will stall for time but will just sound awkward."

The fusion glared at her and tried to keep talking. "Steven…We all want what's best for you and…"

"Steven will ignore everything Captain Topaz is saying."

"AAAAH! What are you doing?! Why are you making this so hard?!"

"Because you need to stop dancing around the problem and face it."

Topaz's jaw dropped and even Steven, still stuck in a depressed haze, looked surprised.

"You can talk normally?" asked the boy, the first clear words he said since his episode began.

"Of course, but most of the time I choose not to. I mostly dedicate myself to the art of precognition to the best of my abilities."

The fusion was still stunned, both by the sass she received and by how she somehow missed this. Granted, Lars had been the captain of the Sun Incinerator far longer than her, but did he even know?

The petite gem, however, was barely phased as she hopped onto Steven's bed. His head was still foggy from his days of reclusion, but for once his puffy eyes were able to focus on something besides shedding tears.

"I understand that I was defective," she explained, "But even still, I longed to fulfill my purpose and aid other gems with my clairvoyance. Of course, once it was proven my abilities were far from the desired level I was thrown aside. I only escaped being shattered by some agate because she wanted to taunt me and asked me for one last prediction. She asked if there was anything I could do to 'prolong my worthless life.'"

Topaz shook her head, remembering all too well the times Aquamarine would bluntly insult and mock any gem deemed imperfect. Over half the time those comments would be directed at her on a good day. Steven, however, was enraptured with the story and was clearly waiting for her to continue.

"A weapon malfunctioned in a nearby testing ground and blew a massive hole clear through the building, obliterating my executioner and sparing me. I naturally ran as fast as I could, using all the time that accident bought me to make my way into catacombs under the city-wide planet that forms Homeworld. While I was down there, aimlessly wandering the tunnels, I let those disparaging thoughts fester until I fully agreed with them. There were several times I contemplated just giving up and revealing myself so that the predator robonoids would do me in."

Both of the listeners paled hearing that, but Padparadscha said it as calmly as someone talking about yesterday's weather.

"Right before I could do that one day, I heard the sound of footprints and thought they may have finally sent a formal search party after me. Instead I found Rhodonite, rambling on like mad about being split up and shattered by Morganite. I actually got her to calm down and once she was coherent, I was brought to her hiding place. It was there I met Rutile and Fluorite for the first time. Although I appreciated the companionship, I felt I contributed little and my melancholy did not fade until I tried making a prediction for them."

"What was it?" asked a riled Topaz.

"I predicted that Rutile would suffer a great downfall…right after tripping over a rock. The others all thought it was funny…They laughed for several minutes straight."

Steven and Topaz were rather confused until Padparadscha let out a few chuckles that quickly turned out to be happy sobs, made even more prominent by her tears landing on the floor.

"It was the first time anyone appreciated my visions. Ever since I was created, I was told I was a failure, a burden, a miserable waste and that I was better off being harvested. But down there I meant something! I could provide them with insight and levity, a rare moment of joy in the dreary oppression we all suffered! It was the happiest moment of my life and now I can continue to bring that joy to all of you."

While her audience were taken aback by the story, they were perplexed. What did any of this have to do with Steven? Almost as if she could actually predict the future for a change, Padparadscha brought herself closer to Steven until she was staring right at him and answered his unspoken question.

"Steven, grief will only do you so much good. I understand pain and loss. I know all too well what it feels like to hate yourself. I most likely spent centuries imagining how life would be better off without me. But when I joined the other Off-Colors I found my purpose, a new reason to live! And now here I am, able to share my gift with gems who truly do accept me. I never would have gotten here if I had that epiphany, Steven. I learned to love myself and to move past my flaws. In time, I hope you will too."

And with that, the peppy psychic hopped off the mattress and descended back downstairs to the others. Topaz followed shortly after bidding Steven goodbye and realizing she definitely needed to talk to Lars now. She clearly did not know her crew as well as she thought.

As for Steven, he actually thought about getting out of the house for the first time in a few days. He began to think that he had been grieving long enough. He could at least see his father, Lars and Sadie, maybe Connie…

And with that horrible reminder of where his best friend was right now, the little progress he had made was wiped out and the awful pangs of guilt came right back. He would end up lulling himself back to sleep before his subconscious forced him awake with yet another nightmare.

(Break)

In towns like Beach City, where it was conceivable that the entire population could fit in the average city block with plenty of room to spare, news traveled fast. The Crystal Gems had always been known around town but did their best to keep their affairs from affecting them. Aside from one minor evacuation, no harm had befallen anyone. Going out of their way to save people from the occasional alien menace did wonders for the reputation as well.

That all changed when Connie Mahesweran was brought into the hospital outside of town looking like she tried stopping a bullet train with her body. Her mother, on her lunch break at the time, promptly discarded anything and everything that did not relate to her daughter and spent the entire day doing everything she could to ensure Connie's survival. While she first hoped it was just broken bones and internal bleeding, an MRI proved she had several vertebrae dislocated and severe damage to her nerve endings alongside her lungs and many other vital organs brutalized. To say her reaction to this news was bad would be like saying nuclear fallout was mildly unpleasant.

She insisted on staying at the hospital overnight until Doug showed up and convinced her to at least go home for the evening. While Doug stayed at his child's side all night, though his heart was shattered seeing her now hooked up to more life-support devices than he even knew existed, Priyanka was a complete wreck. Her night consisted of one part crying her head off, one part wanting to find that sword Connie trained with and slashing the life out of whatever sick monster Amethyst said did this to her baby girl, and two parts in silent shock as she tried any way she could to rationalize this. Even with her decades of experience, however, she could not do anything for the graphic feeling of her heart being used as a chew toy by whatever twisted cosmic force decided her daughter deserved _this_.

For the next two days the hospital figured she was in no shape to work, but that left her even more time to stew. She considered visiting, but she did not want to torture herself with seeing her daughter hooked up to multiple life support machines. Doug insisted on going to work, but his boss agreed to give him a paid week off out of sympathy. Now the Mahesweran parents were at home simply sitting in their living room when someone knocked on their front door.

They both ignored it until the person at the door knocked for several seconds straight and made it clear he was not leaving. Doug went up to order someone off his front porch, only to be shocked by who was there.

"G-Greg Universe?"

"Yep, that's me," chuckled the portly father, "I was just seeing how you two were doing. May I come in?"

Doug looked back and was met with a nod from his wife. "Sure."

Both the Maheswerans realized they had not seen Greg in months, possibly even a year or more. Somewhere between then and now they could tell he had started losing weight as the black t-shirt he was wearing was much looser on him.

"Can I get you anything?" asked Priyanka.

"No thanks, Doctor Mahesweran, but do you all need anything?"

The two briefly thought about it before Priyanka answered. "Yes. We went a full explanation of what happened. What…did that to Connie?"

Greg winced at that but knew full well they deserved the truth. It took nearly an hour, but eventually he explained everything from when Jasper suddenly showed up to Steven shattering his foe and being a wreck ever since. The Maheswerans had a great deal of sympathy for the boy by the end of it all but could not wrap their heads around one fact.

"Wait, so that gem is dead?" asked Priyanka, ensuring she heard the story correctly.

"Yeah, once a gem's stone is broken it's gone."

"And this is the gem that crippled Connie? _After_ Steven surrendered and was going to do what she wanted…" added Doug.

"Yep."

"And she basically wanted Steven to go to an alien planet and be _executed _by their insane queen who blames him for everything his mother did?" finished Priyanka.

"Pretty much."

"So why is Steven so distraught over all of this?" asked Doug, "I mean, of course he'd be sad for Connie, but he still saved the day. Now that Jasper can't hurt him or anyone for that matter."

"Because Steven's not a fighter, never has been. He's been the kind of kid who always wanted to solve problems with his words. Ever since he was a baby, he's just been a gentle spirit."

"I may not be a psychologist," spoke Priyanka, "But I think I understand some of what Steven is going through."

"You mean besides PTSD?"

"Well, that's apparent, but a part of it is called cognitive dissonance. You yourself said Steven has more or less been the peaceful type who never relishes in violence, but after he…transformed, he became his natural opposite. Right now, he's more or less at war with himself, trying to figure out who he is and what he really wants. Combine that with seeing his best friend and family threatened and the fact that he's a fourteen-year old with who knows what other problems he has and it's no wonder he's isolated himself from the world and entered a depressive episode."

Greg's mouth was slightly open and even Doug did a double take. "Honey, where did you learn all that?"

"One of the benefits of my profession is you meet a lot of different doctorates. I have a few friends who have their PhDs in psychology, but I'm far from an expert on it."

"Could you maybe have one of them talk to Steven? He could really use some mental help to get him out of this."

"Perhaps…Though I can't promise anything. If you need anything, however, we will do our best to assist. We honestly owe you and Steven too much for everything."

The former rock star looked very puzzled to hear that. "Wait, owe us? For what?"

"Steven, and by proxy you, made us reconsider how we were as parents," explained Priyanka, "We were…overly strict, to put it mildly. Connie was a natural introvert and while very book smart, we always assumed that she could easily get mixed up with the wrong people. When she came home that first day after meeting Steven, she seemed different."

"Then again, anyone's bound to be different after beating some giant sea worm with a glow ring," chuckled Doug, the first time he done so for several days, "But she suddenly became so excitable. Little by little she started coming out of her shell, but we never liked how she never told us much about what she was doing with Steven."

"Before that, we pretty much managed her entire schedule. School nights, weekends, even during summer vacation we always kept her busy thinking she had to keep studying or keep her occupied. She never argued against it, so we figured she liked it. Turns out we were wrong about almost everything…"

"After that incident at the hospital she came clean about everything. Including how she felt she had to lie and keep secrets from us about her eyesight being fixed and the whole training thing because we would forbid her from ever seeing Steven again. I couldn't believe she thought we would think we would rip her away from her first real friend like that."

"I can," Priyanka spat, "That's pretty much what I thought about doing at first, until I realized she was far more capable than I thought. Here I was worrying about her being influenced by rap music and junk food when she can fight off a small horde of creatures straight out of a horror movie!"

"Yeah, life can get pretty strange like that," admitted Greg, "But you guys shouldn't beat yourselves up over it since nobody's perfect. It's like I always used to tell Steven: if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."

The Maheswerans looked at him, surprised by his odd choice of words, but appreciated the advice.

"How…How did you do it?" asked Priyanka, "How did you trust your son so much?"

"Well, most parents don't have to deal with the kind of stuff Steven goes through. I knew from the second he was born he wasn't gonna be like any other kid, but I still wanted him to have a happy life. The Crystal Gems were always there to look after him so I knew he was safe, but I wanted to make sure he could handle life when he got older. I wanted him to be kind, respectful and thoughtful so that's how I always treated him. I told him right from wrong, but I also told him why it's important to think like that - because he'd be on his own someday and one day, I wouldn't always be there to make decisions for him."

"How old was he when you said that?" asked a very curious Doug.

"Maybe five? Steven already knew what it was like when someone didn't come back because of Rose, but I trusted him that he could handle it. Heck, he handled it better than I ever did since at his age now I was the kind of teenager who thought he knew everything. But Steven…He knows he doesn't have all the answers, and there's been times where he thought he did and it backfired, but he always does his best to fix things. And now I know I did a good job with him because he can stand up for himself and others when they need him."

The couple stared at him, amazed at how little credit they gave him. They quickly learned that despite Greg's look and lifestyle he was an upstanding man, but now they had a newfound respect for him. Then, much to their shock, it was his turn to look depressed as he sulked into his chair.

"I just wish he remembered that now…Nothing I say to him gets through."

"Well, like I said, Steven should begin coping with his emotions given enough time," said Priyanka as stood next to him, "We know better than anyone that trying to force your kid into something never works."

"Greg," added Doug as he stood on the fellow father's other side, "Trust me when I say we've all made mistakes. But in the end, we both got some pretty great kids who need us right now. Your son needs someone to reassure him and our daughter needs to recover. We might know nothing about gems and battles, but we'll try to make things easier for you anyway you can."

The former Mr. Universe looked up at the two and smiled, taking their words to heart. His son needed him now more than ever and what was moping around going to accomplish? He headed to the front door after shaking hands with the pair of them and was soon on his way in his van. Once he checked on Steven for the day, he planned to go straight to Pearl and really learn how to use that suit Peri and Bismuth were making for him.

(Break)

While the Crystal Gems fretted about on Earth along with all the humans of Beach City, there was a handful of others concerned with the recent events on Homeworld. White Diamond has taken the time to personally monitor Jasper's entire trip to Earth, watching the entire encounter with a live video feed. After it was all finished, however, White felt more confused than she could ever recall feeling in all her millennia.

She immediately called for Yellow and Blue and showed them the entire meeting between Jasper and the Crystal Gems from the moment she arrived until her end at the hands of "Rose Quartz." For once her intention was not to reveal some plan or genius insight, but rather to gain a second perspective because White had nowhere else to go. She would never _admit_ that of course, but this was one time she wanted their advice.

Once they had watched the whole affair, though, they were not much better off.

"What…was that?" asked Blue after several minutes of all three of them sitting in silence over their personal communicators.

"This…greatly complicates things for one," admitted Yellow, already sending her Pearl off to cancel whatever meetings she had for the next hour.

"Well, let us at least start with the concrete facts," spoke White, "First and foremost, that Jasper is shattered. A very minimal loss, but it still deprives us of a potential resource."

"It was another one of Pink's subjects…" wept Blue, "All she wanted was to serve her Diamond."

"I suppose we should add her name to that new memorial," offered Yellow, "After all, she _did _fall in the effort to stop Rose Quartz like all the others."

"Agreed! At least she valiantly served until the end…"

White rolled her eyes at this. One of the reasons she pushed herself away from the lesser Diamonds was their overbearing sense of chivalry and grief. She only agreed to that memorial in order to stop another round of petitioning from Blue, but this was another thing they did not need to know.

"Right…As depressing as this is, it may still serve as an advantage. We now have active footage of the remnants of Rose's rebellion ending a faithful gem's life."

"Are you suggesting we…display that?" pondered Yellow.

"Indeed I am. While Rose is by far the most infamous of our kind, she has become something of a whisper only spoken of like a long-cancelled model of gem. There is no active fear of her anymore, the masses believing her to either be in a far-flung system or outright shattered by untold means. To see proof that not only is she alive, but also still attacking and endangering our way of life we can stir the public into a frenzy! We will instantly reignite the war effort and can have the entire might of the Gem Empire gunning for her with this evidence!"

Yellow and Blue Diamond both had to resist the urge to shut off their communicators and just pretend the entire incident never happened. The fervor in White's voice and the manic glee in her eyes terrified the other two to no end. Hearing so enthused for once was jarring at best and nightmarish at worse. It also meant that they would have to spend _more _time working alongside her and that was a risky prospect in and of itself.

"Before we get to that though," ventured Yellow, her voice threatening to crack, "There is one massive puzzle to solve first."

Yellow then brought up the feed and paused on a moment showing the offending pink gem that looked absolutely nothing like their old nemesis.

"Yes, that is quite the anomaly," admitted White, "How did Rose Quartz change her appearance like this? Where did all these new abilities come from? Why this change of identity to 'Steven' of all things? This will be quite the enigma to solve."

"Until we have more answers to all of this," said Blue, "Perhaps its best to keep all knowledge of this confidential. As much as I want to make Rose Quartz suffer for all she's done, we need absolute certainty of her identity. We'd turn the public's opinion against the war effort just as soon we would gain it otherwise."

White, though she would never admit it verbally, acknowledged her point. The last thing they needed was for a false alarm. "From what I studied from the corrupted gems, it couldn't have been anything inherent to the planet itself. Unless…"

"Unless what?" asked both the other matriarchs.

"It is something _from_ the planet! An element native to that world that allowed Rose to augment herself and gain new abilities!"

"As horrifying as that sounds," thought Yellow, "It would be a valid explanation. And it would be just like her to sacrifice her physical purity just for more power."

"Is there nothing she won't stoop to?!" shouted Blue, "First she betrays our empire and shatters Pink, but now this?! Next it'll be that she experiments on gems for fun!"

"Calm down, Blue, there's nothing definitive yet. We need to test this hypothesis before we draw anything conclusive."

"Agreed," commanded White, "We need to analyze Rose's new form and figure out how she has modified it so extensively. Although, I may already have an idea about this…"

"And what would that be?" asked Blue.

White set the video to rewind until near the beginning where Pearl was attempting to threaten Jasper and then let the audio speak for itself.

"'Human beings are unique individuals capable of far more than us gems are!'"

**Next time we're going to focus exclusively on the human characters, though, with Steven trying to move on and getting some help from a few friends. Tune in next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	39. Day and Night

**Anyone else ever been in such a hurry to post that they completely forgot to do their usual intro and outro? Oh well, onto more story!**

One full week had gone by since what was now known around the temple as the "Jasper Incident" and some things had begun picking up. Peridot and Bismuth were back to working in their respective fields and teaming up to collaborate. Pearl had resumed Rhodonite's training while Topaz spent more time learning the ins and outs of the Sun Incinerator. They all now had to share guard duty for the warp pad, feeling it was too much of a risk to leave it unsupervised lest Homeworld try something. All in all, despite the risk, life had begun picking up pace as the Crystal Gems moved past the Jasper Incident.

Their attitude was helped, however, as Steven also seemed to be healing. After Padparadscha's speech to him, he actually got out of bed the next day and talked to every single one of the Crystal Gems. He was noticeably quieter and more restrained, but they all took it as massive progress. He apologized for, of all things, worrying them with his depression and assuring he was better now. While they all took the news well, they could clearly tell something was still wrong with him. For one thing, he always found a way to avoid his training.

"Sorry Pearl, but I've got this really awful cramp in my back. I don't think I should stress it too much."

"Really? Right now? I just agreed to meet Dad, but I'll get to it when I'm back!"

"I really wanna, but Rutile and Rhodonite wanted to see the town a bit more and I agreed to show them around. I'd hate to let them down…"

It was so unlike him that it bothered the gems, especially Pearl and Garnet, to no end. They knew not only was he making flimsy excuses to get out of training but given how much time he spent letting his skills wane it would make the problem worse. They all knew that the Diamonds were not done with them, but he never brought that up either.

The other thing he was dead set on avoiding was seeing Connie in the hospital. Every day his Dad or the Maheswerans called him with the offer and much like with the gems he would always find some excuse to get out of it. He even used his training as a reason to skip, outright lying to them that Pearl wanted to practice some new technique or drill when he was instead lounging around or doing some menial task.

While he did at least get a decent amount of exercise and did help out with stuff like watching the warp pad or keeping everyone's spirits up with his usual personality, they all felt like he had regressed several months to a younger, far less active Steven. The only thing keeping any of them from snapping at him was two things - the fact that he at least was finding ways to contribute even now and the painfully obvious fact that he was clearly still dealing with the Jasper Incident.

He had also formed the habit of frequently going on walks around town and giving very little indication of when he would be back. It seemed to be a compromise between avoiding his actual training, yet also keeping some exercise in his routine. He was on one such walk in the early afternoon when he came across a pair of friends he had not seen in some time.

"Hey there, Steven!" said Sadie as she waved him down. She was standing next to Lars who opted for a simple peace sign.

"Oh, hey guys," he replied coolly, "What are you up to?"

"Well, we both just quit our jobs, so that's something."

"Wait, what?! Neither of you are working the Big Donut anymore?"

"Yeah, I had to work there all by myself while Lars was away. It was ridiculous, me trying to run an entire store all by myself, and they wouldn't send anyone to help!"

"Then I showed up again," spoke Lars, "And decided that even all my time in space was better than pushing donuts. Heck, I can bake better donuts myself whenever I want! I'm keeping the shirt, but I've decided I want to do something more with my life."

Steven had to admit they both had a point. He recalled seeing Sadie looking much less peppy than usual whenever he passed by and Lars had more than earned some freedom after spending weeks running from a homicidal gem police officer.

"Don't worry, though, they finally found someone else to work the store," assured Steven, "So there will be plenty of chocolate-glazed donuts for everyone."

"Heh, good to hear, but I've been staying away from stuff like that," admitted Steven, "Pearl usually keeps me away from sweets unless it's after my training."

The two older teenagers heard what he said but started noticing something was off with him. He lacked the usual energy and vibrancy he always showed. He barely even reacted to hearing his favorite donut shop would be briefly closed which normally would have devastated him.

"You okay, buddy?" asked Sadie, "You seem really down…"

"Huh? I'm just tired, that's all. I've got so much going on these days. In fact, I've got something to take care of right now…"

"Really?" asked Lars, "Like what?"

"Just some…important stuff. I'll talk to you later, alright?"

And with that, Steven turned away from them and headed to the nearest corner. As they melancholy half-gem left their sight, Lars immediately pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Hello?"

"Pearl, it's Lars."

"What the-?" started Sadie before being shushed silently by her friend.

"Oh, right, I did give you this number…Topaz is busy in her room right now so-"

"I don't need her right now, but thanks. I wanted to talk to you or one of the other gems who looks after Steven more."

The gem on the line let out a long series of stammers before finally admitting she was home and had some time to spare.

"Good, I'll be there in about ten minutes. Thanks again."

He hung up and immediately headed down the boardwalk and onto the sand with a very baffled Sadie tailing him.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down! What the heck was all that about? Why on Earth do you have _Pearl's_ number?"

"Because in Topaz ever needed help with being a captain, I wanted to be there to give her advice and since she doesn't have a phone Pearl was the next best bet. Also, the Off-Colors sometimes want to chat. I did have to explain to Rutile how a phone works with two heads, but that was just funny."

"Okay then, but what are you doing again?"

"I just want to talk to Pearl about Steven is all. You want to come with me?"

The girl hesitated for a moment before nodding. Soon they spotted the massive stone statue over the temple and made their way up to the front porch. They noticed a few cosmetic differences from the recent renovations but paid it little mind as they knocked on the door. Pearl was in front of them in a flash.

"Oh, hello Sadie. I wasn't expecting you."

"Sorry I didn't mention it, but do you mind her being here?"

"Oh no, that's perfectly fine. The two of you are rather close and I know you're both Steven's friends. Come in then, make yourselves at home," she offered, hospitable as ever, "Can I get either of you anything?"

"Thanks, but we're good," replied Sadie as they took two of the seats around the fire pit.

"Well then, if we're done with pleasantries, what's troubling you about Steven?"

"We just ran into him a few minutes ago and he seemed really unlike himself. Has something, I dunno, been happening with him?"

Hearing that, Pearl became much more fidgety and started flitting her eyes all over the room. "Oh, well, it's mostly his friend Connie. It's devastated him and he's just coping…"

"Well, we did hear something about that…"

"I'm not buying it," blurted Lars, much to the shock of his friend and Pearl.

"Excuse me? Are you insinuating that all of this is a lie?!"

"No, I know you're telling the truth because her parents are getting tons of sympathy online for their daughter. I've seen pictures of that girl hooked up to about half a dozen life support machines, so I know this is real. What I don't buy is you saying that's the _only _thing bugging Steven."

Hearing that, Pearl calmed down tremendously yet still seemed on edge. "Well, it is true that a lot's been happening around here and Steven… hasn't been taking it well. But he's showing definite progress! He used to be a total shut-in, but at least now he's out and about."

"Uh-huh. And let me guess what's he been like since then - he's been spending a ton of time by himself, been trying really hard to avoid you and has done everything he can to avoid his problems so he can keep moping."

"Lars, cool it," admonished Sadie, "You don't know all that!"

"Actually," admitted Pearl, "That's a pretty close guess to his behavior. Are you a psychologist?"

"No, but I am very experienced with how Steven is. He's just like I was for so long and the last thing he needs to be right now is a useless, whiny crybaby."

"Lars! Don't be so hard on yourself, that's not who you were!" encouraged Sadie, but the pink-skinned teenager laughed that off.

"You're giving me way too much credit. Sadie, I was a complete jerk to you and just about everyone else all because of one little thing that happened years ago. I wasted so much time brooding and complaining when I could've been doing something more productive."

Both listeners said nothing as they were both clearly surprised by his confession. Feeling he had no choice but to continue, Lars explained himself.

"I moved to Beach City when I was ten, right in the middle of summer vacation. That meant I was the new kid in school and since I didn't have any friends, I walked into my first day with a batch of cupcakes I baked myself. I started baking when I was seven after my mom showed me how to make my favorite brownies. I thought they tasted so great I wanted to make something like that myself. I was pretty much obsessed, and those cupcakes were the first time I ever showed my stuff to anyone besides my parents…"

"It didn't go well?" asked Sadie, already fearing the answer.

"The entire class laughed in my face. They called me a sissy, a weirdo, a loser and… several other things that I'd never call anyone. I cried all day when I got home, and they had to literally drag me school every day for the next two weeks. After I stopped bawling my eyes out, I pretty much became exactly like Steven. Not only did I never say or do anything remotely close to baking outside of my house ever again, I started ditching classes, I was a total jerk towards anyone, I tried sucking up to whoever the popular kids were and I just stopped caring about almost everything… including myself."

While Sadie was heartbroken to hear all of this, and personally amazed she never learned about any of this given how long she has known him, Pearl was just stunned. All she heard about from Topaz and the Off-Colors was the daring captain who outwitted for months on end in the name of getting back home and yet he looked about ready to cry from reliving a memory.

"All I could do for years was be afraid that anyone would do that again, so why even bother? Even around you, Sadie, I thought one day you'd just up and leave me."

"What?! But I'd never-"

"I know you'd never do that! You're a fantastic friend, but all I thought about was one wrong word would turn you on me just like all those kids did. It's stupid, it's ridiculous and it's absurd, but that's how I was."

"Um, as insightful as this is to you," asked Pearl, "And though I am certainly impressed that you've matured so much, what does this have to with Steven?"

"Oh yeah… The problem is Steven's going to head down the same path I did. If it's anything like what I went through, he won't get out of it until something forces him out."

"That sounds overly drastic, Lars. Not to be condescending, but it's only been a week so with some gentle encouragement-"

"Pearl look at me. I can pilot a spaceship better than I can drive a car, I had a killer robot explode in my face and blow my eye out and I came back _from the dead_! It took _all of that _to get my act together and I still have issues! My parents spent about six years trying to gently encourage me, and I blew them off! And you want to know why? Because I was a selfish, whiny, angsty, insecure jerk who thought that if he ran away from his problems long enough, they'd all go away and they NEVER DID!"

Sadie and Pearl were both stunned at the end of his tirade despite every hateful word being directed at himself. By the end of it all, the former captain looked halfway ready to explode and needed several minutes to regain his composure.

"Sorry about that… The point is him running away won't solve squat. One of you needs to get some sense into him before the next big problem happens. You and I both know Emerald will try a stunt like nearly blowing up the town again."

"Well, technically the attack was organized by White Diamond, but your point is valid nonetheless," spoke Pearl before standing up and offering a hand to both of her guests. The teenagers took the opportunity and headed for the door. Sadie simply waved goodbye and waltzed outside, but Lars turned around and said one final piece of advice.

"Pearl, I always wanted to say I'm sorry for being a tool to Steven for so long. He's a really good kid who doesn't deserve to be miserable like I was for so long. We all need him the way he was."

With that spoken, Pearl was left alone in the temple in a rare moment of solitude given how much more crowded the place was. Would a more direct approach would work, or would it drive Steven further away? She would have to consider this with the others before doing anything too drastic.

* * *

Another few days passed with little progress, much to the consternation of the Crystal Gems. After her meeting with Lars, Pearl brought the others together and got them on board with using a more direct approach to getting Steven back on his feet. The first and foremost was to stop him from spending so much of the day in isolation. Their best solution was to find ways to keep someone by his side, but that could be tricky. They could not be too forward with him or he would just find some way out of the house, but they managed to keep him occupied. Pearl asked for help tidying up the house, Amethyst kept finding new stuff in his room to check out, Bismuth and Peridot kept him updated on whatever new gadget they worked on and so on.

While at first resistant, there were signs of progress. While he would sometimes try to worm himself away from them, there were other times he accepted the company with little outcry. He even began smiling and resembling his old self in rare glimpses when they managed to get him to laugh and truly open up. It was those moments that made them feel as if they were making real progress. The problem, however, was something none of them could easily treat. His mind and conscience were constantly at war with each other and this dissonance hit him hardest when he was asleep.

Tonight's dream started like many of them did - Steven having a great time with the Crystal Gems and pretty much the entire town of Beach City. The scenario this time was a cookout as the sun began to set over the ocean, creating a dazzling backdrop to the wonderful festivities. Greg was manning a massive grill that Amethyst was constantly trying to pilfer hot dogs from, Topaz was entertaining the people by fire dancing with her pugil stick ignited by Cinnabar and Lapis was happily playing with Sadie and Lars in the ocean.

The one constant, though, was that he was always with Connie. Sometimes they talked and laughed about nothing, other times they just sat side by side taking in the scene, but every time it made him feel so peaceful and serene. The world had somehow crafted this one moment to be as absolutely perfect as possible.

Then, just when it seems like he could fully throw himself into the fun, something went horribly wrong. In this case it was a storm materializing right above them and quickly raining out the party. The humans quickly ran for cover back towards the town while the gems all ran inside the temple. The only one who stayed put was Connie who looked at him with worry, sensing something was amiss with the whole affair.

As usual, she was right and suddenly Connie was being dragged away from him by gale force winds that came from nowhere. She pushed with all her might, but soon she was swept off her feet and helplessly dragged into the sky. Steven chased after her as she flew farther and farther away, his usual superhuman resilience failing him. His lungs burned, he quickly wore his throat out screaming in fear and soon his legs gave up on him entirely. The Crystal Gems tried to call him back, urging him inside, but now he was too drained to even move.

As the pain of watching his best friend be captured by the storm intensified, he felt a wrenching pain in his gut. A blinding pink light consumed his vision and soon he became his other self once again. That bizarre crystalline form that he used on Jasper always showed up somehow, sometimes as a separate entity who terrorized the town. He had been the one to kidnap Connie three times now before slaughtering all of the Crystal Gems with a cruel smile on his face.

This time, however, Steven himself was becoming the monster as his body transformed into a living mass of pink crystal. Power coursed through him, the howling wind barely fazing him now. With one mighty leap he flew into the clouds, but his friend was gone. It seemed the clouds had somehow atomized her and left no trace of her existence. The transformed Steven felt an overwhelming anger pulse through him, and he let out a deafening roar that could be heard across the entire world.

He plummeted towards the ground, fire wreathing his body as if he was a living meteor. His landing, however, did far more damage than any falling star as a shockwave erupted from all sides of him and ravaged everything. Clouds of sand were sent miles high; a tidal wave went from the beach into the ocean and the temple was completely demolished from the blast. The destruction pleased him. It brought him a sick, sadistic pleasure to see his emotional pain given form and so he went into Beach City and started trashing the entire place.

The townspeople fled in fear as the rampaging alien effortlessly outpaced any vehicle, smashed through walls with his bare hands and delighted in causing as much collateral as possible. The only thing hampering his fun, though, was an irritating headache that kept distracting him. That headache was none other than the voice of Steven.

This was another of the constants the boy had with his nightmares. Whenever he ended up fighting his other self he pleaded and tried to reason with him, but nothing worked. It only made it easier for him to get pulverized until he finally woke up. When he _was _the monster, though, it was always worse. He could see and feel everything he was doing like this and it terrified him to no end. He would beg until his voice gave out and cry until even his eyes were exhausted, but nothing worked. Even worse is that on top of the smell of burning buildings and the sight of his town in ruins he could feel _his_ joy at it all. It felt so completely wrong, so alien to him to take pleasure in other's suffering, that it made him want to leave his own skin.

Just when it looked like there was no stopping himself, the Crystal Gems ran in to confront him. By this point, however, Steven knew this would not help. Indeed, his outer self was elated at more things to break in half and urged them forward. His opponents all dogpiled him, but with one flick of his wrist he sent them all flying. The gems charging at him, trying different strategies and abilities until one by one they were beaten into submission. The crystalline boy then walked over to a barely conscious Pearl and sent a punch straight into her gem as the original watched in horror. He shut his eyes to try and avoid the image, until something got his attention.

"STEVEN, STOP!" cried an eerily familiar voice. The outer Steven was just as confused. Who was trying to ruin his fun?

Then something entirely new happened as Steven suddenly regained control of his body. The world around him began fading to black, the ruined city and battered gems completely disappearing until it was only him in an inky void. The new voice then spoke again.

"Steven, you need to stop running from this," it said with a gentle firmness, "This is something you need to face."

The boy was completely baffled. He knew that voice all too well, but it still made no sense. Why would he start dreaming about _her_?

"Steven, I'm not part of your dream," she said as if reading his mind, "But I am a part of you. I told I always would be…"

His vision was consumed by a gigantic flash of light that forced his eyes shut. When he opened them, his body was back to normal, but he barely even noticed. He was too busy looking at the woman in front of him. Her gigantic head of pink hair, her flowing white dress and a loving face that has forever been ingrained in his memory.

"M-Mom?" croaked Steven, barely able to believe his eyes.

"Hello, Steven…" replied Rose Quartz with a sorrowful smile as she stared at her son for the first time. The son was hopelessly confused, but logic did not matter to him now. He ran into her arms and relished the fact that, even if this was just a dream, his mother had chased away his nightmares and he could finally feel at peace if only for now.**And so now, another new player has entered the field: Rose Quartz herself! How will Steven handle meeting his mother for real this time? Tune in next time to find out.**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	40. Rosebud

**And now for some unexpected mother-son bonding!**

Once Steven finally got all the tension out of his system, the gravity of who was standing before him came. All things considered, he acted as calmly and rationally as one would expect.

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!" he yelled so loudly a tremor ran through the room while wearing the most baffled expression. Rose, however, was just amused by it all and chuckled.

"Steven, calm down, it's actually pretty simple; do you remember that video tape I made right before you were born?" The boy nodded.

"I said 'every moment you love being yourself, that's me, loving you and loving _being_ you…' I was always a part of you physically, of course, but that also meant part of me would literally be inside your mind."

Steven was naturally floored, but his mind was starting to reach that point where it was overloaded and would just accept anything. He did try pinching himself a few times to check that once and for all this was not a dream.

"And this isn't like that time in my room, either," she added, though he barely reacted as the gears in his brain threatened to melt, "Pull out your phone for a second."

He was about to comment he did not have it, but he reached into a pocket and lo and behold there it was.

"Now bring up your camera."

He did just that and when he pointed it at Rose, she was perfectly visible on the device. With the only other explanation he could think of for this meeting gone, Steven's mind found a way to be overwhelmed all over again. He literally fell straight onto his back while staring up at the nothingness above him.

"You know you are taking this a lot better than I thought you would," commented his mother as she laid down beside him, "But it's also worrying me. I thought you'd be much more surprised."

The boy just shrugged, but that was not enough for Rose.

"Steven, I know everything that's happened with Jasper and Connie. That's why I'm here. You _need _to overcome this."

He remained silent, but she could see him trying to shuffle away from her. Instead the void around them suddenly flashed white and it turns out they were both in a giant pink bubble. Steven ran up to the side and tried punching it but could not even make a dent in it. He slammed his fists into it again and again, trying harder with each swing, but still could not make any progress.

"That's not going to work," chimed his mother, but then noticed how Steven started backing away from the barrier. At first, she thought he had relented but instead he summoned his gauntlets and tried to bring down the bubble with a running charge. He leapt up and break out the top, but only succeeded in hitting his head. The tried busting through the floor and only got wasted time and effort. He tried every weapon he could think of, but all of it proved fruitless.

"Let me out of here!" shouted the frustrated teenager at Rose, "If this is my mind, then you have no right to keep me here!"

"Steven, you're in no shape to help the others like this. I never spoke up before because you've always been able to pick yourself up, but now you need to get a reality check and-"

"I said LET ME OUT!" Steven then proceeded to actually charge straight at Rose, only to miss and roll onto the floor as she dodged him with a single movement.

"Okay, talking's not working. Let's try something else…"

The bubble around the two greatly expanded, now being large enough to contain a football field. Rose then summoned a simple black handkerchief and held it in her hand out to a very confused Steven.

"If you want me to release you, you have to snatch this cloth away from me. I promise that I will not fight back, but I will dodge everything you throw at me."

"And what happens if I can't?" asked the skeptical boy.

"Well with an attitude like that I don't think you'll ever succeed meaning you'll be stuck here permanently so you'll have plenty of time to try anyways!" She then calmly stood and watched as Steven got back up and tried charging her again. And once again she dodged his lunge with the smallest possible movement.

"How are you doing that?! You're like twice my size!"

"One, I have _much _more experience than you. Two, you're just flinging yourself at me with no real strategy so it's not much of a challenge. And three, despite how bulky this dress looks it's actually very lightweight."

Steven did take a moment to blink at how random that last sentence was before trying again, this time pulling out a whip and trying to swipe the cloth out of her hands. Instead all he did was give his mother another opportunity to show off by grabbing the whip with her other arm and yanking him in with enough force to throw him off his feet. He landed on his face, but when he got himself up, he found Rose offering him a hand and an apology.

"Oh my, I didn't mean to do that! Did you scuff your face, Steven?"

"What the-?! What is going on with you?" Rose just titled her head, prompting him to continue.

"You go from being all cryptic like the other gems used to be when I was younger to super serious and then all lovey-dovey like that! I don't get you! What's the point of this?"

"The point was to make sure you weren't hurt since this isn't a real fight. As for the other things, you're more than smart enough to figure that out on your own."

Again, Steven chose to answer with brute force instead of words. This time he tried using his spear to knock her away, but instead she proved far more agile than even Pearl despite her size. With all he learned from the others, the boy really had to give credit to her. She moved with complete control and grace, every step perfectly positioned so she never let her guard down. Combine that with the story he heard about how she once ripped a Ferris wheel out of the ground like it was nothing, he knew more than ever why Homeworld was frightened by Rose Quartz.

Then, finally catching Rose by surprise, Steven suddenly stopped his assault and summoned a bubble around himself. Given how she still had not tried to so much as poke him, this threw her off and it only got worse when Steven rolled over her with it! Instead of using it for defense, Steven actually turned into a fully mobile battering ram and flattened his mother with it. When she tentatively got up, he plowed into her even harder to the point where she ended up stuck to the surface and sent into the ground over and over again until Steven finally relented.

Once it was all finished, Steven went to his mother lying flat on her back. For once, Steven's frustration subsided as he got closer and saw her chest heaving and what sounded like sobs.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

He stood right next to her, her hands moving up to protect her face as she got louder.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" he quickly apologized, "I don't know what I was thinking, I didn't mean to hurt you but-"

It was then that Rose showed her face and she was laughing her head off.

"Oh my gosh, that was hilarious!" she guffawed, treating the entire scene like a massive joke, "I can't believe I never thought of that, too! Almost ten thousand years and I could've been used my bubble like a hamster ball!"

"What the heck?! That didn't hurt?"

"Steven… No offense, but I've been through much worse than that. But trust me when I say you've gotten much stronger thanks to your training."

He gave a small smile at the compliment, but it quickly faded. He suddenly plopped onto the ground as all the energy drained out of him.

"That's the problem, though."

"Hm?"

"When I fought Jasper… I remember it all. I felt unbelievable, like I could do anything, but then I just lost it."

"Steven, it's not your fault."

"YES, IT IS!" The bubble around them suddenly quaked.

"Steven?"

"ALL OF IT! I'm responsible for ALL of it! The Diamonds keep coming after us because of me! All because I _exist!_ They want to kill me, shatter all the Crystal Gems, blow up the planet _just because_, and even when I do what they want…"

"Steven, say it. Don't keep bottling it up."

"THEY ALMOST KILLED CONNIE AND I HATE THEM FOR IT!"

The earthquakes were back, now strong enough to even put Rose on edge. While the barrier around them never fell, it did sway as if it were a literal bubble.

"What the heck is wrong with them?!" screamed the boy, "I finally do what they want and then Jasper just goes and cripples her! She even _smiled_ when she did it, like it's all a sick game! Now my best friend is pretty much DEAD and it's all HER fault!"

Steven's gem began to glow with an unearthly light as it felt like the room was being shaken apart, but his tirade did not stop.

"I hate her! She deserved it! All of the other Homeworld gems deserve it too! ALL OF THEM, EVEN THE DIAMONDS!"

With one final scream skyward, the bubble shattered and a familiar transformation took hold of him. He managed to push himself back into his crystalline state much to Rose's surprise.

"Goodness, you needed this more than I thought," she commented, "But at least now you're facing the problem head on like a-"

Whatever she was about to say got cut off when he ran up and punched her square in the face. While it was not enough to cause major harm, it did knock her askew and quickly soured her mood.

"LET ME OUT!" shouted the possessed boy, "I have to make them pay! Give me that cloth!"

Rose all but forgot about her original challenge but remembered the cloth she still had in her hand. She looked into the cold, reflecting eyes of her new opponent and gave an unflinching glare.

"You really think I'm going to let you run amok again? Steven, you know that won't solve anything."

"Hand it over, NOW!" He summoned a shield on his left arm and a gauntlet onto his right hand to make the point crystal clear he was done with words.

"Okay then… We can still play this game. But now I'm going to fight back. Do you have any problem with that?"

Instead of answering her, he bee-lined straight for her, keeping both his weapons level to throw off her guard. Would he ram into her with the barrier or land a crushing blow with his fist? He may have been enraged, but his logic was not lost…

…Except Rose was no idiot either. Instead of reacting to either, she simply leapt several hundred feet into the air with a single hop and tied the cloth around her neck as she flew. Steven was about to leap after her, but he got a surprise when she instantly entered free fall and slammed into the floor with enough force to cause cracks several feet long to string out in all directions. The boy even took a slight step back when he looked into her eyes and saw raw determination. All the playfulness and motherly concern was gone, replaced with the concentrated essence of discipline.

"Steven, this is your last chance," she offered, her tone as cold as ice, "Calm down now, or I will be forced to hurt you."

His confidence wavered for a moment, but instead Steven pulled out a whip and tried to tie her up. Instead she pulled the same trick as last time by grabbing the whip before it could come close to ensnaring her. She then silently started spinning around with force to rival a hurricane, trapping Steven with the immense centrifugal force until his hands slipped and he went flying faster than a bullet.

He landed in a heap and quickly managed to right himself, but barely had to think as Rose was already behind him with the same steely expression. Given that the two were now at eye level, they stared at each other before launching into a frenzy of fists and feet that would have made any professional martial artist weep. Steven's raw power and unpredictability was losing, however, thanks to Rose's focus and greater experience. Their struggle ended when the mother sent a kick straight to his midsection that sent him rocketing away. This time he managed to stop his momentum, but the force left his legs halfway drilled into the floor.

Rose then summoned a shield of her own and ran straight him faster than a speeding train, but Steven managed to free himself by summoning a bubble around himself. With his legs no longer restrained he managed to leap away in time and summon Sardonyx's hammer. As Rose came for another pass, he swung the weapon like a bat to knock her away and actually landed the hit. The problem was that instead of flying away, Rose blocked and managed to tank the blow with only a slight flinch. He could even feel the force of his swing reverberate back up his arm, making him drop the weapon out of surprise.

"Impressive," admitted Rose, "You've got a lot of variety."

The boy barely registered the kudos and brought out both gauntlets and tried punching her out. Instead all he got was even more blatant example of her agility as she ducked and weaved every blow until she caught both of his hands.

"And your physical power is great, but you know what your problem is?"

Steven tried to yank away, but he was immediately let go and thus lost his balance. Rose took the opportunity and landed a palm strike right to his chest sending him tumbling end over end.

"You've completely let your emotions get the better of you. You're not using any strategy against me; you're hoping brute force will just let you power through. I _know _the Crystal Gems taught you better than that, Steven."

Steven felt his energy start to dip, her words and constant superiority starting to get to him. With a last defiant cry, however, he summoned Opal's bow and prepared to fire a point-blank energy arrow. He thought there was no way she could dodge this close!

What she could do, though, was summon a bubble and just stand there while the arrow harmlessly hit her barrier and left her unharmed. With Steven's steely expression gone and replaced with complete shock, Rose brought down the barrier as fast as possible and landed one punch to the face that felt like getting hit by a small planet.

"Ooooohhh…" he groaned, wondering if he could possibly fall unconscious while still in a dream.

Rose then stood over him and held out a hand. "Are you okay?"

He nodded and took her hand, staring at her eye-to-eye. She then placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Steven… I know it's difficult. Believe me when I say I _never_ wanted any of this for you. I dreamed that you'd get to be a human who lived his own life, but now you're stuck in my shadow. I've had to watch you deal with the Diamonds for everything I did, and it breaks my heart! You and the other Crystal Gems never deserved this, but here you are fighting again all because of me."

"But…" he tried to intervene, but she cut him off.

"I never got the chance to say this before, but I am _so sorry_ for all you've gone through. Just look at you - a child who's had to go through so much. If there's anybody you should be angry with, it's me. I'm the one who shattered Pink Diamond, but now you have to live with the consequences."

The boy noticeably backed away from her when she said that. "You're right. It _is _your fault."

Rose just stood there with her head down. "I know. And that's not getting into how all of you felt after all this… Especially Pearl. I remember that trip you took with her and Greg to Empire City…"

"Wait, you've seen _everything_?"

"As embarrassing as that may sound, yes. I knew how much she cared about me, but I never imagined her feelings got quite so… intimate. But that does remind of one other thing, Steven."

"How much singing went on during that vacation?"

"Hahahahahaha, I suppose you're right about that, but no. I've seen you go through a lot and it is hard to watch sometimes, but there is one thing I've witnessed that you need to know."

Steven was lost for the moment, but he soon got his answer when Rose placed her arms around him again.

"How unbelievably _proud _I am…" she whispered, "Steven… You've become so much more than I could have ever hoped for and I don't mean just being powerful. You are kind, selfless, genuine and always looking to see the best in everything. I may not have had the chance to raise you, but I wish I did so I could watch you blossom like you have! I still hate how you've been roped into all the messes I made, but you have proven time and time again that you can hold your own while standing by what you believe in."

The boy felt his heart swell with joy before suddenly jerking away from her and walking into the void.

"Steven? What's wrong? Was it something I said?!"

"You're wrong…"

"What?"

"I did something horrible… I shattered Jasper, Homeworld's still after us and now Connie's half-dead all because of _me!_"

Then the strangest sight Rose had seen yet happened as Steven's regular form appeared right next to his current crystalline one and began shouting at _each other_.

"I tried talking her out of it, but it didn't work!" pleaded the human half.

"But you did what she wanted, and Jasper still hurt Connie!" yelled the gem half.

"I didn't want to do it…"

"Yes, you did! They hurt you so you hurt them back!"

"Then I clobbered the other gems for nothing!"

"So what?! They're still okay!"

"I don't want to fight anymore!"

"So, you just want Homeworld to win?!"

"I don't want to be a violent jerk like _you!_"

"Yeah? Well I don't want to be a complete pushover!"

"ENOUGH!" shouted Rose with enough force to snap the two Stevens out of their debate before the two could literally come to blows. She then walked up to the two of them and placed a hand on both of them.

"This is not helping! Steven, all this fighting with yourself is unhealthy and is just holding you back. The Crystal Gems need you at your best right now, not literally being at war with yourself!"

She then let out a deep sigh and continued. "This is why I never wanted any of this for you. Steven, for all the powers you have, you're still a child who should've been able to live a peaceful life. I never wanted you to be put in these life-or-death decisions, but it's too late to change that now. You _did_ shatter Jasper, Steven, but that doesn't immediately make you some kind of unforgiving monster."

The human child looked away as she continued. "Steven, it's okay to be angry. You actually surrendered and tried to do the noble thing and it was Jasper who decided to brutalize your best friend for fun. No matter how you look at it that was cruel, sadistic and absolutely wrong."

The boy nodded as Rose turned her gaze to the gem side of her son. "And while it's one thing to be angry, trust me when I say violence isn't always the answer. Fighting Homeworld is one thing but lashing out at everyone is going to hurt yourself more than your enemies. Bismuth… wasn't the only problem I had in the Crystal Gems. You must learn to control that drive and think rationally. The last thing I want for you is to end up dead because of you decided to throw yourself into a war."

Both copies of the son stared at each other for a moment before the crystalline one vanished into thin air. That left only the original Steven and his mother staring at each other before he walked up to her. With his body returned to its original size, he had to tilt his head upwards to see her face.

"Feeling better now?" asked Rose.

"A little… I'm just really confused and tired and-"

"Scared about the unknown? Worried about what's going to happen to everyone you care about? Looking forward to the day you can rest after all of the battles are over?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, like the old expression goes 'Like mother, like son.' That's the exact feeling I had everyday leading the rebellion. It's exhausting, you know you're being watched every day and it never seems to end. Believe me, I was there for several hundred years."

"How did you do it all? I feel like I'm falling apart after a month…"

"I had something worth fighting for. Just like you do, Steven. You love the Earth and everyone on it. If you ever start to doubt yourself again, remember everyone and everything you care about. The Diamonds don't have that, Steven, but you do."

Rose then reached up to the black cloth still wrapped around her neck after all this time and handed it to her son.

"Well, I think you're free to go."

"Wait, but I thought-"

"I said I'd let you go when you got it. I never said it had to be done with force."

Steven just took the cloth with a smile, appreciating the situation as strange as it was. The space around him began to fade, but he made sure to get in one last hug before he was gone.

"Thanks, Mom. I love you."

"I love you too, Steven. I'll always be with you…"

* * *

Steven, for the first time in several days, felt fully rested. He could practically feel the lightened load on his shoulders as he confronted the emotions boiling inside him since the Jasper Incident. His thoughts were interrupted, though, by his father climbing the stairs.

"There you are, Steven! Thought you'd never get out of bed!"

Steven wondered what he was talking about until he saw his alarm clock read 12:30 PM.

"Oh man, Dad, I'm really sorry!"

"H-Hey, it's alright, kiddo. Everyone needs their beauty sleep now and then."

Steven stretched as he walked downstairs to find several of the other gems around. Peridot and Bismuth were continuing their progress on repairing the warp pad protector, Pearl was washing some dishes in the sink and Adamite was fiddling with a small hunk of rock seeing how she could alter its shape rather than just fling it around.

"Hey guys! How's it going?"

"Fine, but it seems you've become much more open," commented Pearl happily, "The past few days you'd be out the door already if you tried."

"Yeah, about that… I'm really sorry for pushing you all away like that."

"Steven, we understand. That kind of emotional shock from… the altercation would dismay anyone."

"All matters considered," spoke Adamite, "Your sudden recovery after such an event proves your fortitude. I lack the experience with other human beings, but many of them strike me as less mentally resilient than you."

"Yeah… Mom pretty much told me the same thing! Funny how that works, right?"

That sentence made the entire room fall silent. Even Adamite dropped her stone hearing the statement that Steven's irrevocably dead mother _spoke _to him.

"Uhhhhh, Steven?" said Bismuth, "You don't really mean-"

"Yeah… This might take a while."

One explanation later once the entirety of the Crystal Gems was pulled in by an extremely stiff Pearl, the group's jaws collectively dropped.

"Okay, this is nuts even for us!" said Amethyst, "Rose's spirit or mind or whatever talked Steven through his emotional junk in his dreams with a fistfight?! That's completely bonkers!"

"Well, I've thoroughly given up trying to process this situation," groaned Peridot, "And with my intellect, that's saying something!"

"Not to mention your ego…" snarked Lapis, much to the general laughter of everyone else.

"But Steven…" spoke Topaz, "That other you… Does that mean you'll turn into that again?"

"I really don't know. Maybe, but definitely not for a while. At least, unless I absolutely have to."

"Fair enough," said Garnet encouragingly, "No one's going to force you to get so upset you transform again. We'll get by with the Steven we've got."

"Heh, thanks guys, but there are three things I need to do."

"And what would that be?" asked Cinnabar.

Instead of answering, he immediately ran for his water bottle still in the fridge. Once he emptied the liquid into the sink, he ran to the warp pad and beamed off. He returned a minute later with a bottle full of pink liquid.

"Steven, did you get that from Rose's fountain?"

"Yeah and I want to do something special with it. Dad, have you seen Connie yet?"

"Not in person, but I've checked with Maheswerans every couple of days."

"Can we visit her in the hospital?"

"Of course we can, kid. You think you're ready for that?"

"Yeah, it's been long enough. And when I get back, I want to train with Pearl again."

The group was surprised at how fast the turnaround from ignore all his problems to going back to normal was, but they were glad nonetheless. Pearl of course agreed to resume his training the moment he returned and with that the father and son headed to visit Connie for the first time.

**So, everything seems to finally be going right for the group! Next time, though, Connie won't be the only one getting visitors...**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	41. Visitors

**Before we get started this time, there's some news you should all know. I began writing this on May 2018 and first posted it to AO3. I've been reposting this chapter by chapter since earlier this year every Friday, but now we've finally reached the point where I've caught up. The good news is now you finally have the full version, but the bad news means updates will be far less frequent. This story has never been on a set schedule and right now my schedule's pretty full being a full-time college student. I thought it only fair to give you all a warning that I will now be emulating this show's only major flaw: inconsistent new releases. **

**With all that said, onward to the chapter!**

Earth. The planet she had traveled so long to see. It took forever, even by the standards of warp speed, but the destination did not feel at all worth the journey. Even still, orders were orders, and she was in no position to question an assignment from White Diamond herself.

Silver Agate Facet-3B1R Cut 7X9 gazed out of the front viewport of the Satellite Shooter, one of the higher-tier ships she had been authorized to pilot, at the blue planet beneath her. Her prim face scrunched at disgust at the very sight of the lone world to elude Homeworld's grasp. Her pristine white hair tied into three downward-facing buns stayed perfectly still as she turned on her heels to the communication screen.

"Attention all ships, the planet has been located," she commanded, "Lock onto my coordinates and arrive in formation. That will be all."

* * *

The weather was pleasant for Steven and his father as they drove down the roads leading to the hospital where Connie was staying. The car was eerily quiet as neither of them looked forward to what they were about to see, but they each knew it had to be done. A conversation only started a third of the way there when Greg saw his son unscrew the cap to the water bottle containing the healing liquid.

"Uh, son, are you thirsty?"

"No, I just wanted to try something before we got there."

With that he spat into the bottle and proceeded to swirl it around once the cap was on again.

"Making extra-potent healing juice? That's a definite first…"

"Heh, maybe, but I just wanted to be sure. I mean I know it's silly since I know the water works, but I've only seen it heal Amethyst's gem. I also know my spit's healed Connie before so-"

"Mixing them together will make it so it'll heal her no matter what?"

"Yeah… It sounds silly, but there's no harm in trying."

"Either way, kiddo, you're helping your friend get back on her feet and that's A-Okay in my book no matter what. She's really lucky to have you as a friend."

"Thanks, Dad…"

With the pleasant chat done, the drive continued in silence though the spirits were higher than the start. Once this was done, both of them were hoping to proceed with business as usual.

* * *

Back at the Temple, the sight of Steven up on his feet again had the whole house abuzz. Pearl and Garnet were already warming up for the training to come by sparring with each other on the beach. As they continued, they were pulled aside by Bismuth with more good news.

"Guys, the warp protector's just about fixed!"

"Really? This fast?" asked Pearl.

"Yeah, the biggest problem was repairing that energy core we got from the Homeworld base. Outside of that it was just rebuilding the thing which is a cinch thanks to Peri's metal powers and my blacksmithing expertise!"

Garnet smiled as she felt the pun coming. "So that means you are…

"Back in Bismuth and you know it, baby! Woo!"

"Excellent work as usual. Let us know when you're both done, and we'll be right in."

The dreadlocked gem happily ran back inside, itching to put the finishing touches on her work. While that was going on, Lapis was spending some quality time with Adamite and Cinnabar in her room. She had to admit it was nice to be able to really test her elemental abilities against someone who could truly keep up with her. Though she had the home field advantage with her room being an endless expanse of water with little land, Adamite proved her resourcefulness by using the sand in creative ways. Cinnabar also showed her creativity, but she treated the whole situation like a game.

"Heads up!" cheered the arsonist alien as she summoned a small fireball on each finger before flinging them at the other two. Lapis, looking to fight her usual flight instinct, stood her ground and simply made a water shield to protect herself. Adamite shot several sand projectiles with perfect accuracy and they clashed harmlessly in midair.

"Nice try," commended Adamite as she subtly sent a tendril of sand underground, "But you should know better to announce your attacks."

Cinnabar barely dodged out of the way, having to leap into the ocean to keep her footing. Before she could jump out, she found two chains rooting her legs to the shallows.

"Good advice," said Lapis as she then sent a watery hand as big as Cinnabar into the trapped gem's back to send her flying. She took the attack well.

"WHEEEE! This is so much fun!"

The other two took that as a cue for a break as Cinnabar landed face first. The three calmly sat on the sand and took in the surreal beauty of Lapis' new room. It was something else watching shooting stars whizz by in one patch of sky while the one immediately next to it was a cloudless day.

"Man, feels like I've barely been in here," admitted Lapis, "Almost forgot what it looked like."

"It is surely something," responded Adamite, "Although your last dwelling was quite impressive as well."

"Yeah, it's still kind of sad what happened to the barn."

"Maybe," chimed Cinnabar, "But how many can say they've flattened a spaceship with their house?!"

"Heh, that was pretty cool. Just don't ever bring it up around Peridot or else she'll go crazy over all the meep-morps we made getting trashed."

Adamite chuckled at that. "I must admit it amuses me to imagine you as some form of artist."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all. I can now see the benefits of recreational activities as they declutter the mind and lower stress. Before, though, I would have dismissed them as unproductive."

"Homeworld just needs to learn how to lighten up!" griped Cinnabar, "Maybe they'd stop being huge jerks if they had some fun once in a while."

"Oh, yeah, so if we just send them a full DVD boxset of _Camp Pining Hearts _then they'd just forget everything and stop attacking other planets?" joked Lapis. That got quite the laugh out of Cinnabar and even Adamite who thought it was so ridiculous it just might work.

The last major group was Topaz and the Off-Colors who were in the Sun Incinerator parked on the cliff above the temple. While most days they would be preparing to go on a brief test flight to ensure the ship was in prime condition, there was one thing they all needed to resolve first.

The five gems were huddled in front of the main monitor, watching the scene before them with rapt attention. A figure hidden in shadow entered the frame and all of them gasped in shock, only to be heartbroken by what happened next.

"What?! The credits?!" shouted Rutile's left head.

"That's just heartless!" agreed her right head, "Now we'll never know who's spying on Paulette and Percy!"

"I still can't believe that stunt he pulled!" groaned Rhodonite, "Now who will win the canoe race?"

"Captain… Does she have…?" started Fluorite before Topaz took the moment to clear her eyes and remove the final disc of the _Camp Pining Hearts _second season DVD set from the player.

"Yes, Peridot does have season three, but we'll have to get back to that. We still have a test to run."

"Okay…" moaned Padparadscha as she moved to her usual spot, but secretly made a note to _not _tell any of the others that the oncoming figure was actually Pierre. She did not need to be a proper psychic to predict that her crewmates would never let her live down giving such a massive spoiler. Although it was not her fault that being able to see the recent past meant you were able to pick up on the subtlest of foreshadowing in television shows.

Instead she idly watched the others bring the starship to life and take off for a quick jaunt to Angelopolis on the other side of the country to ensure that everything was still running smoothly. After they were done with their daily run-through, they could get started for the even more important event of binging the next season of their favorite show.

* * *

The Universe family pulled up to the Delmarva Point Hospital about twenty miles outside of Beach City and exited the van. Greg soon called the Maheswerans about what they were planning and waited for a few minutes before the eager parents arrived.

"Thank you for calling us," said Doug, clearly anxious to see his daughter well again, "But is it true what you said? You can actually heal Connie?"

"Well, that's Steven's department, but I've learned to trust in stuff like this," admitted the other father.

"Yeah, it's some special water made to heal gems mixed with my spit. It fixed her eyes before and I thought having both would be a way to make sure it would work."

"I can just hear all of my professors laughing at that thought," admitted Priyanka, "But given the realistic alternative I'll take whatever magic potion you have. I just want my little girl home already."

The four of them entered the main lobby where Priyanka was greeted by her coworkers who were surprised to see her again. Many wondered if she was here to return to work, but she made it clear to the receptionist she was just here for visiting. One brief check later and the four made their way to Connie's room on the fifth floor. Steven had to admit the place was much nicer without the gem equivalent of necromancy wandering about or the eerie green lighting.

Of course, humor like that was just to keep himself from bailing as he got closer and closer to the room. He could feel his nerves take hold of him as the events that led to this point flashed in front of him, but that also included seeing his mother. That thankfully gave him the courage, alongside some reassuring glances from Greg, to reach the door to room 515.

Inside was Connie, but at first glance he could not tell. Her entire body was covered in wrappings and a large back brace around her midsection. She was hooked up to half a dozen machines made to keep her alive and the only real indication she was alive was the EKG letting out a high-pitched beep every few seconds.

"Goodness…" mumbled Greg as he took in the morose sight. The Maheswerans had at least seen the girl in this condition, but a sudden flash ran through his mind. He saw Steven in that bed for a split second before looking down and seeing his actual son's knees shaking. Greg gave him a gentle push which was enough to keep Steven moving.

As he stepped closer and closer, the replays in Steven's mind got more frequent. He heard that deafening scream she made from Jasper's last hit over and over again, but he shoved it down. He forced one foot in front of the other until he was at her bedside. His hands tried unscrewing the cap of the bottle he still held, but he felt something he needed to say first.

"Connie…" he whispered, "I'm so sorry this happened. I know you'll tell me not to worry about it when you wake up, but I still need to say it. I promise I'll protect you better next time… because I know you'll protect me."

With that off his chest, he opened the bottle and poured the pink liquid inside on the comatose girl. Her skin glowed as the mixture washed over her, but even still Steven emptied all of it. Irrational as part of him thought it was, he wanted to make sure his friend was back to full strength.

By the time he was done, Connie's body shimmered for a few seconds before her eyes ripped open and she took in a huge gulp of air.

"What the-?! Jasper…Gems…Pain…What the heck is-?"

She did not get much further before Steven covered her in a massive hug, overjoyed that the medicine worked. Any more attempts at questions were drowned out as her parents, both noticeably crying, swarmed her next and thanked whatever planet Rose was from that their child was alright once more.

* * *

Peridot and Bismuth had the entire house brought inside for the reveal of the reveal warp pad protector. While Fluorite had to stay outside because of her size, she was just as eager to see their success as the rest of the group. With a dramatic press of a button, the machine droned to life and the group applauded the engineers responsible.

"Ah yes, thank you, thank you, your praise is well understood," gloated Peridot, "It's not every day you pull off a complete recovery like this."

"Alright, everyone lighten up," joked Bismuth, "We don't her head getting any bigger."

"Har har. As if you don't ever take part in gloating."

"I'm not denying it, but at least I don't expect people to 'praise me'…"

"It was one time! You try winning at the Robot Olympics and see how you feel!"

"Robot Olympics? That sounds amazing!" squeed Cinnabar, "Can we see the next ones?! Please?"

"As entertaining as that sounds," admitted Pearl, "We don't have the surplus of spare parts we used for last time to build with. Plus, there is the whole Homeworld situation to deal with and…"

"It was pretty awesome," said Amethyst, getting the other newcomers interested in the idea, "We could even sell tickets for people to watch."

"We'll look at the later," said Garnet, getting everyone back on track, "But for now we should be happy that Homeworld can't surprise us again."

"Plus, we managed to analyze the sabotaging device the Diamonds used last time and thus planned ahead," added Peri, "They won't be pulling that stunt again."

"Great," sighed Topaz, "And with our check done, we have nothing major to worry about for now."

"Well then, the meeting is adjourned," concluded Pearl, "Back to whatever you were doing for the day then, everyone!"

As the group dispersed, the swordswoman seemed exceptionally giddy at the prospect of finally getting Steven back on his training regimen. Not only for his own sake, but also because she had loved the opportunity to teach. She figured it would take some time for Connie to recover and take up training herself, but having one of her pupils back would definitely be a step in the right direction. As for now, though, she pulled aside Rhodonite and decided to have a quick spar with her before Steven returned from his visit.

* * *

It took almost an hour for Connie to be cleared from the hospital. When the girl's assigned nurse saw her walking up and about when she still needed a machine to breathe a few minutes ago, she automatically assumed she had somehow ingested someone else's medication. It was not long before every single doctor in the building were trying to take her vitals, double-checking her bed to make sure this was not Connie's long-lost twin and trying to work through the enormous migraines that came when literally everything you spent years practicing was ignored.

Thankfully, Dr. Mahesweran was there to diffuse the tension and say that it was thanks to the Crystal Gems that her daughter was alive. That quickly sorted out many of the questions since the general consensus was if they were involved, it was something supernatural and/or magical and thus should be left alone. Greg even said he was grateful to have that excuse or else he worried his half-alien son would be hounded by paparazzi.

Eventually, though, the two families were free to go. All of them were glad, but Connie herself had a great deal on her mind.

"Okay, now that I don't have someone pushing a stethoscope on me I need some answers," she said to Steven, "What exactly happened to me?"

"Well…"

And that proceeded another very long explanation of the "Jasper Incident" as Steven recounted everything that happened from his wrathful transformation to his bout of depression to his wake-up call from Rose Quartz herself. By the end of it all, Connie's jaw was sore from being left gaping for so long.

"Woooooooow…"

"Yeah, that's been the past few weeks. Pretty crazy, huh?"

"Even by your standards. So Jasper's really…"

"Dead. No amount of healing water can fix that."

"Man… So how do you feel about all this?"

Greg and the Maheswerans, who had been listening this entire time, excused themselves for one reason or another. That left the two alone to talk in private on one of the hospital benches.

"I don't know now… Because it's pretty easy to say Jasper's evil."

"Pretty sure crippling someone for fun will do that…" remarked the girl bitterly.

"But even then… I don't want to think that. Everyone has so much to them, even her."

"You really think so? After all of this?"

"I mean, I can't really find out now, but yeah. Connie, almost half the people I live with were bad guys at some point. But then I managed to talk them through it and now they're my friends."

"True."

"So I just can't help but wonder… What if I said something different? Something that made Jasper change her mind and at least stop bothering us? Maybe she wouldn't have been a Crystal Gem, but what if she at least stopped being such a jerk?"

Connie stopped to think of that for a moment only to remember something from several years ago.

"I used to think that way before I met you."

"Huh? Think about what?"

"Whenever I was in a new town, I always just read books because I thought other people wouldn't like me. I wanted to meet new people, but every time I tried I started thinking 'What if they don't like me? What if I just humiliate myself? What if they hate me because I'll just move again?'"

"Okay, that's really sad, but what does that mean with Jasper?"

"It's thinking about what _might _happen instead of making it happen. I was always so scared about being rejected that I never bothered even trying. The whole reason I thought I was never going to have friends was because I just assumed other kids would hate me."

Steven just stared at her for several seconds, having to remember how Connie was when they first met. He almost could not imagine the shy bookworm from so long ago to the girl sitting next to him now.

"You know, Mom said something like that," he admitted, "And she said it wouldn't be easy."

"Yeah, but she also said you don't have to save everyone alone. She's right about that too."

Steven had to chuckle at that. "You know what would be funny? You meeting my mom."

"Heh, she'd probably just tell me to not break her sword or try anything funny with you…"

"Then we could all train together as one big insane family!"

The two laughed at the ridiculousness of the thought, letting all the tension out of their systems. After so much serious discussion, such a little joke seemed like the funniest thing they ever heard but they did not care. It was nice to actually act like children once in a while.

Once they finally calmed down, the three parents walked over to them and told them it was time to finally bring Connie home.

"When you see Pearl again, tell I'll be around in a few days to start training again, okay?" said the girl as her family got into their car.

"Sure thing! We'll be back to butt-kicking shape in no time!" boasted Steven before giving her one final hug before the two parted ways. Despite a slight bit of dread still in the air, the two felt a sense of optimism. This time, no matter how hard things got, they would be able to face the future.

* * *

The next day, high in the planet's stratosphere, Silver Agate's reinforcements had arrived. A force of only eight ships seemed insufficient compared to the scale of other operations, but the gem had absolute faith in the Diamond's plan.

"All ships, check in," she ordered through the communicator. Once she received an affirmative from all the vessels, she resumed speaking.

"Now that we have arrived, we will wait until the next nightfall of this planet before landing. What little information we have on these organic lifeforms is that they require an excessive period of rest every cycle to remain functional. We will strike when they are at their most vulnerable."

That received a cocky round of affirmatives from the other captains on board. What could a bunch of organics do to gems, anyway?

"Your mission is to abduct as many organics as possible and return them to your respective craft. You will meet interference from Rose Quartz's rebellion so be prepared for a confrontation at all times. Do not depart until after I give my signal, understood?"

One final sound-off from all the ships rang out.

"Excellent. Everyone maintain your position and prepare to succeed for the good of Homeworld. That will be all."

**And so next time, we'll have Homeworld pulling the classic alien invasion on a much larger scale than the last time they tried. **

**As usual, thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review! **

**Since the next update won't be coming for a while now, I'd also like to sincerely thank all the people who've been following and favoriting this little story of mine and bringing me to nearly 25,000 hits. Who knew my crazy little collection of headcanons would get so much attention?**


	42. Abduction

**Of course. As soon as I say this story's onto irregular updates, I post one day later than I would have! AND right as Steven Universe Future comes out and FINALLY goes back to weekly releases. Enjoy this chapter while I clean the egg off of my face.**

The warp pad glowed with life as Steven, Pearl and Rhodonite returned from their session at the Sky Arena. The day had completely flown by and the three only realized how late it was by the sun beginning to dip over the horizon. Despite how tired Steven felt, his spirit was still high.

"Thanks for helping, Rhodonite. You've gotten really good!"

"W-Well…" stuttered the fusion, "I do my best, but I-I still feel like I have so much to learn."

"Believe me," assured Pearl, "That feeling doesn't ever leave even with how long I've been doing this. I agree with Steven in that you've come leaps and bounds in such a short time."

The fusion blushed as she went off to tell the Off-Colors about her day, that left Steven letting his body relax while Pearl tidied up the few dirty spots in the house.

"I must also say, Steven, you've jumped back into it like it was nothing. Very impressive!"

"Heh, thanks, but I still feel a little rusty," admitted the boy as he took a swig of water.

"Well, your light physical activity during that slump kept your body in shape, but it's great to see you so motivated again."

"Thanks."

The enjoyed the quiet of their home, a rare occurrence as everyone else had other business to attend to, until Pearl spoke up.

"Steven, this might be a difficult question to ask but…"

"Huh? What is it?"

"When you talked to Rose… Did she say anything about me?"

The question surprised him, but he figured it would come sooner or later. "Not really… She did say something about she didn't know how much she hurt you, but that's about it."

"Oh… I suppose I should expect that. She did specifically appear to assist you, after all."

Steven winced as even though her back was turned, he could feel the sorrow coming off her. He did not know if he could call her on demand, but he felt the need to say something.

"Pearl, I'm-"

"No, there's no need to apologize," said the gem, "I brought it up so I should be ready for the answer. If you'll excuse me, I've been meaning to get some things done in my room. Have a nice night, Steven."

The boy was left to head upstairs by himself and pass the rest of the night reading, trying to shake the slight pit in his stomach left by Pearl's mood. Little did he, or any of the Crystal Gems know, this night would be far more than any of them expected.

* * *

Thanks to its small size, Beach City had pretty much no nightlife to speak of aside from the occasional rave. Once the clocks hit pass eleven, the only people out and about are the occasional insomniac or a tourist passing through on the way to a much larger town. Miles away from the town, though, a series of small spaceships began depositing gems onto the ground. Once the aliens were beamed in, they stealthily approached the houses and made their way to the nearest entrance.

A resounding ruckus ran through the town as dozens of doors and windows were broken down in unison. The chaos only grew as the gems stormed in, tearing apart rooms until they found the nearest humans. The people panicked and ran from their multicolored attackers, but found that the gems overpowered them easily. Screams of terror began ringing through the night as men and women were dragged from their homes and hauled towards the ships.

The only bright side to the whole affair was that the screams managed to reach the temple where, safe inside a pink force field, Steven would not have to worry about anyone infiltrating his home. He had other problems to deal with as he was startled awake.

"What the…?" the boy asked groggily, only to receive a call on his cell phone.

"Lars? Where's the fire?"

"All over town, Steven!" the teenager replied in a hushed whisper, "Gems are invading the place!"

"WHAAAAT?! How many?! What are they doing?!"

"There's dozens of them out here kidnapping people! I just watched my neighbors get their door broken in and two of them yanked outside! Get the Crystal Gems up and about right now or else they'll take the whole town by morning!"

The boy then hung up and sprinted to the temple door. He all but bashed the door in with his knocking, but it was enough to get everyone's attention.

"Guys, there's a Homeworld invasion! There's gems all over town abducting people!"

"What?!" gasped Pearl, "But why would they ever do that? The Diamonds see humans the same way we see animals…"

"Doesn't matter," finished Garnet, "The point is we've got a mission on our hands and Beach City needs us. Topaz, you and the Off-Colors get to the ship. Do a fly-by and give us an estimate on what we're dealing with."

"Got it!" the other fusion replied before darting off to find her crew. Thankfully they were all still watching their favorite show all together, so they were able to set out in a few minutes.

"The rest of us need to split up and intercept these gems. We've got a lot of ground to cover, but we've also got people in the mix. The last thing we need is someone getting hurt on our watch."

"No problem!" saluted Amethyst before running out at top speed, shaking the house with her startup.

"Those clods will pay for this!" assured Peridot as she hopped on Lapis' back while the other gem sprouted her wings and flew out the door.

"I'll stay with Cinnabar," said Adamite, "She's not used to fighting in delicate situations."

The fiery gem did not object to her restrictions for once. Once they were outside, the earthen gem sent them both underground off they went. Bismuth was already gone, too angry at the situation to say anything. That left Garnet, Pearl and Steven heading out last. As they ran down the beach, they each had their own thoughts on the situation.

"_I may not have seen this coming,"_ thought Garnet, _"But I won't let them down. No more people are getting dragged into space while I'm here!"_

"_I really hope Dad and Connie are okay,"_ fretted Steven, _"But there's so many others to check on… I guess I'll just have to improvise and do my best."_

"_This is a nightmare…"_ dreaded Pearl, _"It's only going to escalate from here… We've never had them actively going after people before, even Rose wouldn't know! I wish she was here right now… I'm not sure how I'll make it through this…"_

As soon as they came into view of the town, they spotted three enemy gems running in a line with a helpless man being carried in the rear. Steven wasted no time leaping into action, summoning his shield and slamming into the one in the lead. She was sent flying into asphalt and before the other two could regain their bearings, Pearl snuck up on the middle gem and stabbed her through the chest with her spear. That left Garnet to freeze the man-toting gem to the pavement and grab the hostage before pounding her into her gemstone.

"Aw, what hit me?" asked the gem Steven slammed, trying to clear her head. She did not get much of a chance as Steven summoned a gauntlet and smashed into her gut. She barely got a chance to wheeze before being sent back into her stone. Once the foes were dealt with, Steven immediately checked on the captive.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thanks to you!" he congratulated, "But what do I do now? Those things are everywhere!"

The boy thought for a moment before getting an idea. "Our home has a force field around it that these other gems can't get into! You could go there and be safe.

"Good idea," complimented Garnet, "You lead him there while Pearl and I start cleaning up the town. Once you're done, start looking for other people and bring them to the temple."

With a firm nod, Steven was off with the grateful townsman in tow. That left the two veteran Crystal Gems to literally leap into action as they bounded off into town to stop more abductions.

Amethyst, thanks to her speed and a touch of anger, was already well on her way. It turns out that combining the already impressive strength of a gem, even a literal defect like the speedster, with insane amounts of velocity made it so she could effectively trounce any Homeworld gem as long as they did not see her coming. That proved even easier when she could literally tie them up with her whip faster than they could blink. By the time Steven found her, the purple scrapper already had half a dozen people saved and quickly sped off once she knew they would all be safe.

The farther reaches of the town were being covered by Peridot and Lapis, the latter flying around the few suburbs outside of Beach City with the former hanging on Lapis' back. The duo made an odd pair, but the unlikely friends were a force of their own. Many Homeworld gems immediately mocked Peridot for her stature and weakness, only to be surprised when she slammed the nearest garbage can, car door or mailbox at them with enough force to make them see triple.

Lapis, though, had to restrict her usage of water so as to not flood the houses. She kept herself to a glob the size of her body that she grabbed before flying off, but it was quickly proving effective. She formed chains, hands, even a literal clone of herself to double-team any gem who tried escaping her. One jasper was even low enough to try using some pre-teen girl as a human shield, thinking that the aquatic gem could not use her powers with a hostage in the way. Several watery knives to the back, including two to the neck, proved her wrong and she happily received a hug from the grateful child she saved.

Bismuth, still patrolling the main streets, did not need a partner as her rage made her seem like a one-gem army. Every time she saw a group of amethysts touting another flailing person away, she got a nasty case of tunnel vision and charged in screaming her head off. Fortunately for her, the other gems underestimated due to seeing her as a simple architect rather than a lethal revolutionary. Her hands shapeshifted into every form she knew and soon many more gems were bubbled along with a great deal of collateral. Several potholes would need to be refilled, a few walls now needed repairing and one poor sap would have a very fun time explaining to his car insurance provider what Bismuth did to his truck.

The only other ones were the Off-Colors who were making the rounds and quickly noticing how much of a coordinated attack they were dealing with. Before they were halfway done circling the perimeter, they had found three Homeworld starships and quickly saw the scale of the attack they were dealing with. They were soon distracted, though, by noticing a man in a familiar coat waving down their ship.

"That's Captain Lars!" shouted Rutile, both of her heads speaking in unison.

"It looks like he wants to talk to us," said Rhodonite, "I-I think, at least."

"I… hoped… he was safe…" added Fluorite, looking up from the engine room.

"Well, you all know him better than I do," spoke Topaz from the helm, "Bring the ship down so we can meet him."

On any other day, a spaceship landing in an ordinary suburb would have been cause for alarm. Now, everyone on the block had either vacated their homes, boarded themselves up in their basements or were out in this chaos. Lars, however, did not bat an eye as he strode onto the Sun Incinerator as soon as the door was open.

"Well, nice to know this baby is still running well," he said to himself wistfully before getting down to business, "What do you all know?"

"We're dealing with a full-blown invasion," reported Rhodonite, "The other Crystal Gems are dealing with the main forces while we're doing recon."

"Any reason they've decided they just want humans?"

"Well…" Topaz admitted, suddenly feeling very awkward "This isn't the first time they've tried… Sorry about that, by the way."

"Eh, I was still a tool, and if there's anything I've learned is that your society is whack."

"Tell me about it…"

"Lars has important information!" interrupted Padparadscha, "We need to hear him out."

"Oh, yeah, I was wondering if I could take over."

"Really?" asked Rutile's right head.

"I mean, we'd love yo have you, but why? Topaz is right here," questioned the left head.

"True, but between the two of us, one of us is a much better fighter who can go toe-to-toe with gems and the other is a scrawny teenager who's like an ant compared to them."

Topaz started to look away, only for Lars to pull her into looking him in the eye. "Don't take this personally, I don't doubt you as a captain. This crew only follows the best, but Steven and the others need you more. With an extra person out there, that means less people getting abducted while we take the fly-by."

As she took in his words, all of Topaz's doubt melted away. Suddenly, she felt like she could tackle the entire Homeworld horde by herself. It was also then that the fusion realized how someone like this managed to steal a highly-guarded starship and turn four refugees into the airtight crew she had come to inherit. She made a note to thank him sincerely for that later, but now her eye was on the battle as she answered only with a confident nod of the head.

"Good luck out there, Captain Topaz!" cheered Padparadscha.

"Show those upper-crusts what we've got!" added Rutile.

Fluorite and Rhodonite did not answer, but made it clear from their expressions they had no doubt their new leader would triumph. As Topaz ran into the fray, Lars took his old seat and immediately fell back into his role.

"Alright, crew, resume flight and let's finish that recon! Once we have all the intel, we report back to Steven and then prepare a counterattack."

"Yes, Captain!" spoke all four at once, a sense of nostalgia coming over them. Between their old leader back with them and their new one giving the dregs of Homeworld their comeuppance, they almost wished Emerald were still after them. The look on her face seeing her prized ship being used to fight off an invasion of this scale would be priceless.

* * *

Elsewhere, in one of the suburbs outside of town, was the Mahesweran household. What had been a pleasant night with Connie relishing being in her own bed and the parents hitting the sack for the night turned into chaos. Multiple houses down the street had suddenly been broken into, but when Priyanka went out to investigate, she quickly learned it was no ordinary burglary.

"Doug! Connie!" the mother screamed as she ran upstairs, "We need to leave! Gems are ransacking the neighborhood!'

"Start the car," ordered Doug, his protective instincts taking over, "I'll go wake Connie and pack everything we need."

The mother did as told, but when the father ran upstairs he found Connie already half-dressed.

"Connie? Were you still awake?"

"No, but I can't sleep through four houses being broken into. I need to call Steven, though."

"Why? Does he have anything that could stop these guys?"

"Well, maybe, but also because my sword's still at his house. I need to get it so-"

"Hold on, hold on, I'm sorry," interrupted Doug, "But that sounds like you're planning on fighting those things out there."

"Of course I am! What am I supposed to do, run and hide while they take over the town?"

"Seeing as how the last time you tried you ended up _in a coma which you recovered from yesterday_, then yes! Steven and the Crystal Gems will take care of this, but we need to do the smart thing and evacuate!"

"Dad, I get it, you're worried about me, but I can't just stand by and do nothing!"

Before the two could argue further, a scream came from the front yard as they heard a gruff female voice call out.

"Hey, I found another one!"

"Let go of me, you mongrels!" shouted Priyanka as she was hauled away in plain view of her husband and daughter.

"MOM!"

"HONEY!"

Both of them stormed down the stairs, all the logic they had completely forgotten, as they saw two amethysts running off with her. Doug quickly ran back inside the house while Connie stared at the kidnappers.

The pair of intruders looked back and quickly started stalking towards her, even as Priyanka squirmed in the grasp of one of the aliens. Connie, only now, realized that maybe confronting two extraterrestrials with superhuman abilities without a weapon might be a bad idea.

Even still, Connie tried to swallow the panic rising in her throat. "Let my mom, go! She hasn't done anything to you!"

"Yeeeeeeeeah," said one of the aliens, rolling her eyes, "We're under direct orders to grab as many of you organics as possible, so you can either come with us or we'll just take you against your will."

Connie also had to fight off the creepiness that came from these amethysts sounding exactly like _the _Amethyst she has known for months now. Priyanka, though, was preoccupied as she tried to barter for her child.

"No, please! Not her! She's just gotten her life back, let her go! I'll-"

But before they could go much farther, a deafening bang rang through the street as the amethyst not holding the doctor felt a sharp pain in her arm.

"OWWW! What was that?!"

Everyone turned to see Doug holding a literal smoking gun as he leveled the weapon straight at the pair of aliens.

"I don't know if bullets can kill you, but they clearly hurt you," he growled, "Now put my wife down and leave."

"Dad?!" shrieked Connie, "Where'd you get a pistol?!"

"Security guard, remember?"

"Oh…"

"Doug?!" yelled Priyanka, "Are you completely insane?! Take Connie and run!"

"And just leave you?! How would I live with myself?"

"Oh, I think you'll live," snarled the purple gem as she readied herself for a charge, "Until White Diamond gets a hold of you!"

Doug fired another round, but this time the gem saw it coming and managed to dodge. She ran at him and quickly caught up to him. She then yanked the gun out of his grip and crushed it in her hands like it was made of paper before slinging him over her shoulder.

"Grab the other one," she ordered her partner, "I'm gonna tell Silver that this one hurt me and needs to be treated special."

Connie's pupils turned to pinpricks hearing that. She had no idea what "special treatment" was for Homeworld prisoners, but she had no desire to find out. As the other gem came close to grabbing her, the girl felt a sudden warmth in her left hand. She grabbed hold of a sword made of bright green crystal and thrust it straight into the unsuspecting amethyst's chest. The alien let out a brief gasp before poofing into a harmless purple stone.

The other gem had no time to process this new development, though, as Connie started charging right at her. Her fighting instincts had completely taken over and made her laser-focused on saving her father. The amethyst tried to fight back, but with one arm still holding Doug in place and being completely surprised by this new development, she was quickly sliced in half and defeated.

"C-Connie…?" said Priyanka once the three were alone once again. Even with the two gems gone, she still looked ready to panic.

"Okay, Mom. I know this looks really weird, but-"

"Look at your hand."

The daughter looked and was dumbstruck by what she saw. In her hand was still the mysterious sword made of green crystal, but even more than that was her hand itself. It too was made of a bright green crystal, but still completely smooth and followed the contour of her hand. The crystal continued up to her wrist which was still normal looking skin and the two melded seamlessly.

"Okay… This is going to take some getting used to. And first things first after this is all done is to tell the Crystal Gems about this."

"Agreed," sighed Doug, his brain pounding at the surreal nature of this night, "For now, though, can we all just leave town in peace?"

"But-"

"No!" yelled her mother as she started to get head back together, "Crystal hand or not, young lady, you've been in danger too many times and I would rather be shot into space myself than let that happen again! We are going out of town and that's final!"

"Okay…"

"Listen," said Doug, "I know you want to help and you can. You can still call him and make sure he's fine and tell him that you're okay. He's got all those other gems to help him with the fighting. I'll bet he'll be much better out there knowing you're safe."

The girl begrudgingly admitted her parents had a point and, even as she felt the itch to run into action, got into the family car after grabbing a few essentials from inside. The girl only hoped that her father was right and everything would be fine without her.

* * *

Bismuth eventually found her way towards one of the quieter suburbs of town. While there was still some anger simmering in her, she had mostly maintained her composure. Seeing the grateful faces of the men and women she was rescuing helped keep her mind in a positive place. She soon spotted a topaz and an amethyst outside a relatively familiar building. She could not put her finger on it, but the car wash she saw looked familiar…

"Bismuth!" whispered Amethyst from behind her, startling the larger gem.

"Gah! Jeez, for being so fast, I'm amazed you can be so quiet. What's up?"

"We need to stop those two! It looks like they're going after Greg!"

The pieces clicked. She saw the brightly painted van sitting outside and knew she had to stay calm for this. "Got it. I'll draw them over here and you wrap them up."

"Aye-aye!"

"HEY! Looking for Crystal Gems?"

The two Homeworld soldiers quickly turned their attention onto Bismuth as she literally waved them over and kept throwing taunts at them.

"Man, if this is what Homeworld considers fighters nowadays, they must really be sucking mud! I've seen more threatening things in my forge! You sure you don't want me to fight you with my hands behind my back?"

The other two pulled out their weapons, a short sword for the amethyst and a mace for the topaz, and ran at her. They were quickly blindsided, though, when Amethyst came tearing the street at several hundred miles per hour and tied them with her whip before they could blink.

"Ha-ha! Nice try, losers!"

"You think so?" smirked the topaz.

Now it was the Crystal Gems' turn to be blindsided when a second amethyst jumped off the roof of a building behind them and kicked them both down. She then ripped off the bindings from her two cohorts as Amethyst and Bismuth got back up and prepared for a fight.

"Alright, guess we gotta do this the hard way," grumbled Bismuth as she turned her hands into hammers.

"Trust us," boasted one of the enemy amethysts, "Just lying down and being shattered is easier."

Before they could get to tussling, though, all five of them heard a clanging sound coming from inside the van.

"What? Is one of those humans in there?" asked the lone topaz.

"So what if there is? You're gonna have to get past us first!" declared Amethyst as she zoomed around to put herself between the three hostile gems and her friend.

"Don't be so sure about that!" boasted another topaz, having heard the commotion from up the road. Before any of them could interfere, the yellow bruiser ripped the back doors off the van and looked in to find the next hostage to bring back to Silver.

She found something much worse instead. A flash of light came from the van and suddenly the topaz yowled in pain as something blinding struck her in the face and forced her back.

The other gems were all baffled until a lone figure stepped out of the vehicle. A middle-aged man with a bushy beard and a long head of hair flowing behind him despite the top of his head being completely bald. What really grabbed their attention, though, was what he was wearing. His entire body from the neck down was covered in a black crystalline suit with white lines resembling electric circuits running down his entire body stemming from a bright white star in the center of his chest. In one of his hands was what looked to be a laser gun made of light that he now pointed straight at the fallen topaz.

"Sorry, but this is my only van."

"You little-!"

That was the last thing she got out before Greg pulled the trigger and shot her several times between the eyes until her gem could not take it anymore and she was poofed.

With the other three soldiers caught off guard, Bismuth took her chance and tackled the other topaz to the ground before wailing on her once she was down. Amethyst took to fighting the two much larger versions of herself, rapidly punching one before leaping to the other and repeating the process.

Both of them, however, ended up getting further help as Greg's new suit also let him hover a few inches on the ground. With this, he quickly sped over and surprised one of the amethysts by summoning a hard light saber in his hand and ambushing her from behind. With one of them dealt with, Amethyst quickly poofed other one by kicking her a good eighty feet into the air and letting gravity do the rest of the work.

That left only the topaz still wrestling with Bismuth on the asphalt. The two were neck in neck in terms of strength, each one to push the opponent into submission while also trying to get free so they could make a proper attack. There was no telling how long they would be deadlocked, but someone else decided to break the tie for them. Greg summoned his light gun again and shot the topaz straight at the gem and poofed her instantly.

"Huh," observed Greg, "So a shot to the gem is a one-hit kill. I'll have to see about target practice…"

Once all the gems were bubbled and locked away in the temple, Amethyst started fangirling.

"That! Was! AWESOME! When did you get to be some kind of awesome gem-assassin?!"

"You can thank Bismuth and Peri for this suit. I wanted to have something so I wouldn't be on the sidelines the whole time."

"Yeah, it's pretty great work," said Bismuth, "But all I did was make the armor. Peridot's the one who made it hover and project weapons like a gem can. I've made some awesome stuff, but I'm clueless when it comes to software like that."

"I really can't thank you both enough for this. Even still, I don't think I should be charging in to any huge fights since I've had this thing a week."

"Maybe, but you'll be excellent at stealth with those blasters. How about you come with us, we'll draw them in and you be a stealth agent?"

Greg looked down at his suit, realizing the danger he was putting himself in. A few months ago, he would have never even considered something like this. But now?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Alright!" cheered Amethyst, "Let's teach Homeworld to stay out of our town!"

**So let's see... Connie has new powers, Greg has a suit of power armor, Lars has his ship back and Homeworld has dozens of soldiers. Sounds like even odds to me! Tune in next time for a full-on battle!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	43. Street Fighters

**As the song goes, here we are in the future! A new year, a new decade, and the end of Steven Universe Future's first (maybe only?) run. So many occasions call for a new chapter!**

As Steven stood on top of one of the buildings overlooking the main square of Beach City, he let out a yawn from his throat. He had to look down at phone to remember it was almost one in the morning, but even with the dire situation his body wanted sleep. He wondered about calling any number of his friends, wondering if he could spare a minute to check on any of them. The first two were his father and Connie and opened the contacts list.

"Hey!" cried a hoarse voice from the streets below, "Get back here!"

Steven immediately put down his phone and looked at the streets. He saw none other than Peedee running from an angry jasper that was hot on his trail. The boy ran as fast as he could, but the jasper's call caused three more gems to run up from the other side. Now cornered between the hulking orange alien on one end and her reinforcements on the other, Peedee broke down.

"Please leave me alone! I didn't do anything wrong!" he cried, curling into a fetal position on the road.

"Aw, too bad!" taunted the jasper as she stood over him, "We're bringing you to our ship so the Diamonds can see what makes you organics tick!"

Peedee's sobs seemed to fall on deaf ears as she reached down to collect him, only for her to suddenly stop when something sharp struck her in the back. She turned to find Steven holding a pink whip in his hands and glaring at her.

"Really? You're going to pick on a little kid?"

"Hey! That's Rose Quartz!" shouted a ruby among the other gems, "Get her!"

The jasper summoned her weapon, a crash helmet just like the Jasper, and made a beeline for Steven. The hybrid merely leapt to the side and lashed out with his weapon, hitting her in the back again.

"Maybe if you say sorry for messing with Peedee, I'll let you go."

"Fat chance!" screamed another ruby as summoned a knife, "I'll shatter you myself!"

Steven switched to his spear as the fiery munchkin charged at him. He remained completely still until she was two steps away, ready to plunge the knife into his gem. Then in one clean move he twirled his weapon and whacked her hard enough to send her clear through a brick wall.

"Now say you're sorry before someone else gets hurt."

Rather than reply, the sole amethyst of the reinforcements spin-dashed right at him. Steven barely blinked as he put up a bubble and stopped her dead in her tracks.

"S-Steven?!" exclaimed Peedee, completely amazed, "When did you get so many superpowers?!"

The other boy smiled as he saw his friend feeling better. "I'll explain later. Make your way towards the beach and I'll pick you up once I'm done."

"You think it's that easy?!" bellowed the jasper of the group.

"Don't know. Surrendering is pretty easy."

The amethyst did not take kindly to that as she readied her own whip and managed to wrap it around the bubble. Before she could lob it away, though, Steven dispelled it and charged in with his shield drawn. The purple warrior tried to ready herself, but Steven threw the shield like a discus and nailed her in the face. She did not get a chance to retaliate before he grabbed her by the leg and slammed her into the asphalt over and over again until she was poofed.

With just two left, the jasper and ruby charged in tandem. Part of him was tempted to leap in the air, but he did not want to leave Peedee vulnerable as he was just now making his escape. Instead the boy summoned a gauntlet on each hand and nailed them both before they could hit him. The ruby was knocked unconscious, but the much larger jasper was not as easily deterred. She came at him with punch after punch, but Steven dodged and weaved until he was able to sweep her feet out from under her and quickly poof her with a spear-strike to the chest.

Not long after that, the first ruby came stumbling out of the brick wall she crashed through to see her two much stronger partners already defeated and watched in horror as "Rose" poofed her counterpart with an elbow-drop. This left the relatively short fighter only one valid tactic.

"I surrender!" she cried, raising both her arms and closing her eyes as she expected the end to come. Steven glanced at her and thought for a moment about bubbling her, but chose to run off after Peedee instead. The other ruby did not open her eyes for several minutes, confused why she was still alive. She thanked the Diamonds for her luck and ran back to her ship, ready to report what happened to Silver.

Meanwhile, Steven was escorting the youngest Fryman the rest of the way to the temple. This also gave the two a chance to talk.

"Holy bits, that was awesome!" praised Peedee, "You know, I used to think all that stuff you said the other gems did was crazy but now-"

"Yeah, that's my life," joked Steven, "Pretty crazy, but it's mostly worked out. Where's your family?"

"Dad was out of town, so he should be fine. Knowing Ronaldo, he's probably holed up in that lighthouse trying to blog about all this."

"Heh, that sounds right. He's pretty overzealous, but even he wouldn't go outside with all this happening."

"Oh trust me, he won't. He had nightmares about the time your three mom-gems beat him up for months. He'll just write about it all instead."

Before long, the two were in sight of the beach house and the safety of its pink force field. Peedee was a bit surprised by the sight, but he walked through it with no problem. Steven stayed on the porch as his friend opened the door and saw about twenty other saved townspeople milling about including Sadie and her mother, the Pizza twins and Onion who was staring out the window. Even though his emotions never showed, he was huddled in a corner by himself worrying about his mom and brother still being out there.

"One of us will come back and let you all know when it's safe," said Steven, "I've gotta go, but don't worry. We're gonna do our best to save anyone still out there."

* * *

Peridot had to admit it to herself; she was scared. This was way above anything she had ever dealt with before. While she was not the defenseless gem she once was, she could not help but feel like the weak link of the group. As Lapis continued to fly above the city scouting for Homeworld troops, she wondered how much more she could contribute or if she was just in over her head. She may have been a tech genius, but she knew she was never meant to fight.

"Hey!" said Lapis, shaking her partner out of her funk, "Look alive!"

Peri looked and indeed saw three jaspers bursting out of a downtown building each with a human begging to be released.

"Why do I hypothesize you're going to enjoy this?" asked the techie as they landed on the rooftop next to the trio.

Lapis did not respond, but did give a small smirk as she concentrated on a nearby rooftop water tower. With a flick of her wrist, the liquid flew out of the roof and hovered right over the three gems.

"Hey clods!" she cried, "Let those people go!"

"Yeah? Like you're gonna risk hurting these things!"

"I don't have to."

Several watery tendrils emerged from the floating pool and scooped the humans right out their hands. Once she put them down safely behind her, Lapis formed a twenty-foot long arm out of the water and smacked all three of them screaming into the distance.

"Nicely done!" praised Peridot, "Who would've thought planetary hydrokinesis was applicable to hostage situations?"

"Pretty sure it applies to a lot of situations…"

"Now if only we had that quantity of metal, then Homeworld would truly be doomed!"

"Heh, yeah. What she would do about those three, though?"

Peridot walked over to the door to the rest of the building they were on and forced it to unlock. The humans happily moved to the shelter offered to them while the two Crystal Gems wondered where to go next. Unfortunately for them, Lapis' stunt with the water caught the attention of a second group of Homeworld gems from across town. Four amethysts made their way down the street before stealthily hopping on top of the roof they were on.

"Got you now!" shouted one of the purple brawlers as she easily trapped Peridot in a headlock. The other three turned their attention to Lapis, still holding several hundred gallons of water above her.

"Put her down _now_," she ordered, but the other gems looked less threatened and more amused.

"Really? You're getting all worried about this useless runt? What, is she your pet or something?!"

"No, worse, I bet they've fused! It'd be just like that Rose to let them do that whenever they want!"

"Yeah, let's just shatter this reject here and now! That ought to get to that traitor!"

While Lapis looked angry at their statements, Peridot was an entire new level of incensed. "REJECT?! USELESS?! YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY?!"

With that scream, several cars from the streets below them suddenly rocketed into the air as if launched from geysers. The amethyst squad was distracted by the sudden noise, but Peridot was not done. She pulled a garbage can from the sidewalks up to her using only her mind and made it slam into the gem still holding her hostage. Once she was free, the enraged green gem held her arms out and stopped all of the freefalling cars and had them circle the rooftop. For a few seconds there was silence as the four gems realized they were trapped, wondering how they could escape or maybe corner the smaller gem again…

…And then all hell broke loose. The cars began spinning like a cyclone, trapping them without any chance of escape unless they wanted to get a pulverized gemstone. While Lapis flew above the carnage, Peridot stood unmoving even as one of the warriors tried rushing at her. She got five feet in front of her before two tires slammed into her back and forced her to the ground. Thanks to the metal hubcaps, Peridot was able to control them as well and made them spin into the struggling gem's back hard enough to burn rubber before she was poofed.

The other three looked terrified for a split second before regaining their confidence, convinced it must have been a fluke. Two of them went for a pincer formation and rushed at her, but they were both stopped by a pair of car doors blocking their paths. The one of the left tried punching through it, but all she did was get her fist stuck in the metal and was flung hundreds of feet into the air. The one on the right was smarter and tried to run around it, but it simply moved with her. Jumping over it and sliding under it had the same effect, but she was defeated before she could outmaneuver it. Peridot made it whack her over the head again and again until the pain was too much and she too was poofed.

That left one now-horrified amethyst left who tried to do the optimal strategy and run away by leaping over the barrier. Even now, Peridot was not having it and one of the cars from her vortex suddenly broke off and stopped her in mid-air. To finish the last one off, the car the spiked her into the asphalt like a volleyball with a resounding crash. With the last one out of sight, Peridot gently lowered the remaining automobiles to the ground.

"Whoa…" gaped Lapis, having watched the whole spectacle. Peridot, now sporting a cheesy grin, gave her a thumbs-up before her legs gave out from under her.

"Oh gosh! Are you alright?"

Peridot's eyes were spinning in her head as she tried to regain her bearings. "I am currently fine save for my vision spheres trying to escape from their sockets… Also, does anyone else smell freshly-picked rutabaga?"

"Great, you ended up pushing yourself too hard. I should probably fly you back to the temple so you can recover…"

The smaller gem wanted to argue, but the fact that even getting on her feet was proving difficult made her relent. Lapis picked her up and began to fly back towards the temple as Peridot closed her eyes and tried to ease the pounding headache she had.

"You know, that was pretty awesome," admitted Lapis, "But where'd all that anger come from?"

"I may have… a smidge of an ego."

"_Reeeeeally?_ You don't say?"

"Easy there, Ms. Sarcasm, I know where you sleep. Anyway, even on Homeworld, peridots aren't exactly seen as top-tier talent. We're good at planting gems and maintaining tech and that's it. There were the ones who got to be in think tanks, but even then all you do is put the thing together dreamed up by Morganites and the real brains behind the operation. I wasn't exactly respected by my peers. Let's just say I've been called clod much more than I call others that…"

"Yeesh. When did everyone on Homeworld turn into jerks? Back when I was there, at least everyone was decent to each other."

"Of course they were decent to you. You were a highly-coveted terraforming gem seen as instrumental in constructing colonies. I was just a dime-a-dozen lab rat who'd be replaced the second she didn't fix whatever device was thrown in front of me."

As the two landed inside the temple's force field, Peridot shakily made her way to the door while Lapis turned around to fly off back into the action. Before she did, though, she felt the need to speak.

"Peri, you know that we don't think you're useless. We wouldn't have made it this far without you and-"

"I know… And it's really nice to hear."

The inventor opened the door to the temple and walked inside. She then turned around to wave Lapis goodbye, but had one last thing to say.

"It's so gratifying to see my genius finally be recognized by the masses! Your praise is always welcome!"

"Watch it, nerd, I know where you sleep, too."

Despite the warning and the situation outside, both of them knew the other meant no harm. With that jibe, Lapis fully took off and Peridot made her way past all the people taking refuge in the house. As soon as she was back to normal, the latter swore she would head straight back outside where her family needed her.

* * *

The unlikely trio of Amethyst, Bismuth and Greg continued on their way down the streets in formation. The purple speedster took to the front to scout ahead, sometimes literally sprinting several miles away and then dashing back a few seconds later with information. The sole human of the group was in the middle, trying to keep focused on his goal instead of the butterflies in his stomach or how late into the night it was. That left the bulky blacksmith to bring up the rear in case anyone decided to ambush them.

Just as they were hoping that everyone had either evacuated or made it to the safety of the temple, they found half a dozen people running in fear from a dozen angry gems. While the adrenaline was fueling them onwards, the gems were quickly gaining ground.

"Amethyst," said Bismuth, "Cut them off and I'll help you take them out. Greg, try to get those people into a hiding place so they're safe for now."

"You got it, Captain Dread-head!" saluted the other Crystal Gem as she zipped off. It only took a few seconds before she ran straight through the middle of the chase and got the Homeworld troops' attention. While they were trying to figure out the blur that nearly blew them all off their feet, Bismuth stormed in and grappled onto one of the enemy jasper's back and quickly became the focus of the group.

The humans watched on, both confused and grateful for the help from the friendlier aliens, until Greg ran up next to them as silently as possible.

"Come on, we're here to help," he urged, "We'll come get you once those guys are taken care of."

While a bit weary from their terrifying experience, the other people went along with it and soon he led them into an abandoned shop. While the door was locked, he quickly fixed that by ramming it down with his armored shoulder. He beckoned them all inside and moved to shut the door, but found a strong hand clutching his hair.

"What do you think you're doing?" smugly asked an enemy amethyst, "A bio-bug like you trying to help these things?"

"Maybe," he eked out, but cried out in pain when she yanked harder on his locks.

"Aw, does that hurt? I think I'll let you go once my comrades get those traitorous Crystal Gems and then you can be put in a cell with them!"

The father growled as he stomped on her foot as he hard as he could. Fortunately, it was enough to make her let go as she yelped and grabbed her injured appendage and gave him time to retaliate. He quickly summoned a blaster, but soon the angered gem was charging at him. He managed to skirt out of the way and tried firing a few shots, but all of them missed. She then went to punch him in the gut and this gave him the opportunity he needed. Rather than dodge, Greg caught her blow and held her still long enough to fire shots into her until she was poofed.

"Oh man, that was too close," he sighed before looking over at the people he was trying to rescue. All six of them were wide-eyed and were clearly making an effort to keep themselves from cheering.

"So, uh, sorry about that. I'm pretty new at this, but don't worry. The rest of them are trained professionals so just stay here and, you know, we'll be back…"

Despite his obvious awkwardness, the others all understood and one of them made sure to shut the door and lock themselves inside.

Meanwhile, Bismuth had been thrown off her opponent and was now dealing with several violent goons on trying to pin her down. Key word being try, though, as the blacksmith was proving very agile and resourceful. What she lacked in fine combat training like Pearl or raw power like Garnet she made up for in pragmatism. Everything except for shattering was a viable tactic to her whether it was hair-pulling, smacking foes with whatever was in reach or simply chucking them away and leaving them disoriented.

It also helped she had the one and only supersonic Amethyst on her side who acted as a sort of backup to Bismuth. Since the larger gem employed a great deal of throws in her fighting style, Amethyst acted like a goalie of sorts as she punted flung goons back into the fray. The result was either they were poofed thanks to a punch packing enormous velocity from her speed or they were forced to go back to fighting Bismuth with no time to catch a breath. Their tag team was unorthodox yet effective as the purple duo went from twelve foes to four in a few minutes.

Deciding that they could not win against the Crystal Gems, the remaining Homeworld troops leapt into the air and planned to retreat back to the nearest ship.

"Oh no you don't!" yelled Bismuth as she jumped after them. She changed both her hands into hammers as she gained altitude and planned to spike them back down, but the enemies saw through the trick. They all immediately stopped and headed back down to the ground, but Amethyst ran right under them.

"You punks are stuck!" she boasted as she readied her whip. The first of the foes, another jasper, seemed panicked for a moment before locking eyes with something behind the smaller gem. Rather than fight Amethyst, the larger gem managed to sweep her legs and quickly sprinted past her straight at Greg who was watching the fight from a distance. Apparently she decided that if she could not beat them in a straight fight, she would try a hostage situation and try to at least pull off her mission of capturing meatbags for the Diamonds.

That plan ground to a halt, though, when Greg proved he was far from defenseless. Despite the shock of the surprise attack, he quickly summoned a light-blade and sliced the gem clean in two before she could get her hands on him. As her gem clattered on the asphalt, the other three fighters realized they were completely out of options and tried to split up. That too failed as it let each one be targeted by one of the Crystal Gems with Bismuth slamming one into the street, Amethyst whipping one into submission and Greg blasting one straight in her gemstone.

"Dang, Greg!" said Amethyst as she bubbled the beaten gems, "I think you shot that one from thirty feet!"

"Thanks, I guess… It still feels a little shaky doing all this dangerous stuff. I gotta ask Steven how he's been doing it for so long."

"Don't worry about it," assured Bismuth, "Everyone is a rookie at one point. On my first mission, I was so jittery I nearly cut my old friend Snowflake in half with a giant axe."

"Really?" said Amethyst, "I can't count the amount of times I messed up back in the old days. Pearl once spent like two hours lecturing me on 'proper whip handling' after I nailed her one too many times!"

"Oh man, that's nothing. One day, I'll get Biggs to tell you all about-"

As soon as that left her mouth, Bismuth's mood plummeted. She did not know how it escaped her, but remembering all those bubbled Crystal Gems being gone hit her like a meteor.

"Let's go. We've got more upper-crusts to send packing."

The other two did not hesitate as they charged off, hoping that they would lose anyone they cared about.

* * *

Garnet and Pearl took a more unorthodox strategy with the Homeworld problem as they ran down the streets heading out of Beach City. Given the handful of suburbs outside the town proper that could be targeted as well, they planned to run interference on any gems trying to grab people on the run. So far they had managed to get two cars full of families out of danger, but that was no reason to lose their vigilance.

The fusion was leading the way, using her future vision to see where the next altercation would take place while Pearl followed behind. While this had become a normal routine of the years since Rose's departure for the team, the slender gem seemed more quiet than usual. Whenever she thought Garnet was not looking, her eyes were downcast and she was clearly pushing down her nerves.

Garnet meant to ask her about that, but that changed when she suddenly saw something about to go down to the west. She wasted no time leaping into the air with Pearl keeping her pace as they cut between nondescript patches of natures and a handful of roads until they came across their target: a middle-aged woman with a child in each hand cornered by five sneering Homeworld soldiers.

"Oh no, looks like your trapped!" taunted one of the rubies of the group, "Guess we'll just have to drag you away with the rest of your friends!"

"Pl-please wait," begged the woman, "I don't know w-why you want to abduct p-people, but these are m-my children! Th-they don't deserve this! C-Can't you just let t-them go?"

"What, just because you say so?" scoffed the ruby, "Fat chance!"

"M-Mommy?! What do we do?" asked her daughter.

"Lying down and surrendering is a good start," muttered one of the jaspers among them while cracking her fists. When the sole boy of the three started to sniffle and cry, the jasper yanked him out his mother's reach and hoisted him into the air.

"You humans are absolutely pathetic!" she growled, "You should be thanking that the Diamonds are interested in you! Now you can finally be something more than a worthless sack of water!"

"P-Put Ronald down! He's just a boy!"

"Oh yeah? And what if I don't?"

Garnet was all too happy to answer that question as she sent a small flame out of her hand and lit the jasper's hair on fire. While there was a time that most gems were designed to be fireproof, she thanked that modern Homeworld skimped on the details as the once-cocky gem threw the kid in the air as she yelped trying to stop her head from burning.

"You literally asked for it," said Garnet, "Now do the smart thing and leave."

"A Crystal Gem!"

"Two of them, actually," said Pearl as she drifted down from above with Ronald safely cradled in her arms. Once her feet touched the street, she let the boy down and brandished her spear at the group. "And I'm quite disappointed to see how low you all stoop to nowadays."

"Save it, traitor!" shouted another jasper, "Like we should ever listen to you!"

"Give it a try," suggested Garnet casually, "Maybe instead of fighting, you'd be happier making sculptures for a living."

"I would suggest you all find shelter," said Pearl to Ronald's mother, "This almost never ends peacefully."

The family took the advice and managed to squeeze through the gems blocking them in and ran towards the nearest open house. There was a tense few seconds of silence, each side sizing each other up, before the dam burst and both sides charged forward. Two of the jaspers, including the one now mostly bald thanks to her hair being charred, went for Garnet. The perma-fusion dodged every punch they sent at her until she suddenly released a blast of cold and froze all of their hands solid. They tried to adapt by fighting solely with their feet, but they barely got the chance before Garnet poofed them both.

That left Pearl to deal with the third jasper, a pernicious ruby and the sole topaz of the group. At first, the trio fought the veteran one-on-one with the clear mindset that this would not be a challenge. After all, what could a measly servant do against three gems built for fighting? The ruby quickly learned when she was poofed before she could even blink. That got the other two's attention and the larger gems ganged up on her.

Now they assumed they would win easily not only because the numbers advantage, but also they has far superior strength. While this may have been true, Pearl had a great deal of experience fighting opponents above her weight class. When the topaz tried bashing her with her mace, she nimbly dodged and forced her to drop her weapon by twisting her arm. Once she was unarmed, it was a simple matter of poofing her and leaving the thoroughly-peeved jasper as the last one standing.

"What is this?!" she demanded, "You're just some aristocrat's toy!"

"How original," she sighed, "How about I sing something for your funeral and then we'll talk?"

While the larger gem was distracted, Pearl thrust her spear into the gem's shoulder. When she still would not poof with that, the smaller gem flung her now-panicked opponent into the asphalt with a resounding crash. Seeing her foe was still whole, though now very much in pain, Pearl stabbed her again and again until she finally disappeared after three jabs.

"Sheesh," she groaned as she bubbled the orange gemstone, "Forgot how resilient some of these guys could be."

"Trust me, I know," said Garnet, "At least yours didn't survive a spaceship crashing from orbit."

Pearl chuckled at that, but still felt morose. She could not help but feel like a rookie having so much trouble with a single opponent and Garnet clearly saw it.

"You are doing fine, we're all a tad rusty compared to the old days. At least now there's far more of us out here fighting than there would've been a year ago."

"…I suppose you're right. Just can't help but feel like a novice again at this rate."

"Come on, we've got more work to do. These guys won't be giving up any time soon."

As Garnet walked off to check on the family they rescued, Pearl felt a lump form in her throat. As much as she did not want to think about it, she knew her friend was right. This fight was far from over, but that was exactly what worried her. Now more than ever, she wondered if this uphill battle was one the Crystal Gems could win.

**The battle is looking good for the Crystal Gems, but for how long? Tune in next time if Homeworld still has something up their sleeves!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	44. Backup Plan

**And now, time for some more action! Thanks for delaying me, broken laptop!**

While they did not have a lot of ground to cover, Lars and the Off-Colors felt a great weight on their shoulders as they flew around Beach City. So far they had found four Homeworld vessels, all of them larger than their Sun Incinerator and packing dozens of soldiers each. The captain was keeping track of all the locations and planning ahead, but something was eating away at him.

"Rhodonite," he spoke, "Did you say Peridot made some upgrades to the bridge?"

"Yes. Apparently she made it compatible with Earth technology, though I've never tried it."

"It was mostly an excuse to play soap operas on a bigger screen…" admitted Rutile while slightly blushing.

"I'm gonna pull up a map of the town. Once it's up, can you display it?"

The four-armed fusion soon had a port for Lars' smartphone ready and with the map already up on the device, the Off-Colors had an image of Beach City which their captain started marking at several points.

"So far, it doesn't look like they're docking at any specific points. I'm no expert on their tactics, but it looks too random to me."

"Maybe they aren't concerned about that?" thought Rhodonite, "They don't see people as a threat so they thought they could just land wherever."

"True, but that's not their style. All those Homeworld gems love plans and ordinances…"

"Captain!" reported Padparadscha, "We've found the commanding vessel!"

The sole human of the crew was pulled away from his phone as he laid eyes on the gleaming silver ship that was several times larger than any of the others. The flagship was over triple the size of their own craft, but resembled a humungous finger than pointed ominously towards anything in its sight.

"Well, that's definitely a plus. I'll mark it on the map…" As he did so, though, he saw something odd with how the fifth mark looked.

"It looks like a semi-circle…"

"Hey, it does!" agreed Rutile's right half.

"So they have a plan after all?" asked the other half.

"Looks like it. We better speed things up and get our report back. Fluorite, boost the engines. We need speed over precision now."

"Yes, Captain…" answered the caterpillar-like fusion from down below. It only took her a few seconds to get going before the ship went from gently flying above the town to racing off in an arc to see if the captain's hunch was right.

As Topaz through a small patch of wilderness to get from one area of Beach City to the next, she had to admit how surreal the whole thing felt. Here she was actually fighting alongside the Crystal Gems instead of assisting from a distance from the Sun Incinerator and yet she felt so much confidence. Even back on Homeworld her job was to stay in the background and play defensively, but here she was charging headfirst into the fray with only her pugil stick for comfort. There was also the love of Topaz and Topaz and that further boosted her morale, but that was already a given to her.

So far she had not run into any hostile gems yet, but that was also about to change. As she found herself in outside a small neighborhood, she turned and saw a squadron of four running at her with a pair of hostages on her shoulder. Leading the charge was a nephrite, a rare sight given their usual status as pilots, along with two rubies and a carnelian.

"Hey, you there!" spoke the lead Homeworld gem, "Have you spotted any Crystal Gems around here?"

"Uhhh… Come again?" asked a very confused Topaz.

"You know, those loathsome followers of Rose Quartz? We're under direct orders to apprehend them if they become an obstacle!"

"Oh, right! Yeah… I know where one is."

"You do?!" gasped one of the rubies, "That's great! Where is she?"

Topaz replied by taking her pugil stick in one hand and throwing it like a javelin straight at the eager grunt. She was sent flying fifty feet from the blow and crashed into a motorcycle hard enough to have the vehicle form a painful metal wedge around her.

"YOU! You're one of them!" shrieked the carnelian, glaring at the fusion as she brought out a short sword. "I'm gonna end you myself, traitor!"

Rather than speak up, Topaz answered her threat by running at her and spontaneously defusing. The scarlet gem, however, looked confident as the duo rushed her. She could already guess the strategy they were employing and so all she would have to do was jumping out of the way when they re-fused. She could also see the remaining ruby and her squad leader preparing a counterattack.

The problem for her, though, was that Topaz was aware of this as well. Her caste of gems was specifically designed to work in pairs and thus even the most oblivious pebbles in the farthest reaching colonies knew this strategy. Instead of fusing again, the left rebel leapt high above her opponent while the right one continued on. The carnelian was so thrown off by this that she did not put up any defense to being kicked in the face and then grabbed by the other one before being thrown into the pavement. She spent her last conscious moments groaning in agony before one of the yellow tanks slammed her mace into her chest to poof her.

"Phew!" breathed the left half of the duo, "That actually worked!"

"I know, but I couldn't have done it without you!" gushed the right half. They then both embraced for a moment before they heard a scream that brought them out of the moment.

"You're not done yet, clods!" raged one of the rubies, "We'll make sure that you don't get in our way again!"

The pint-sized soldier ran forward in a frenzy with a gauntlet around her right arm. The near-identical lovers leapt out of harm's way, but that did not last long as the nephrite dashed at the left-gemmed one with a katana in hand a grim expression on her one-eyed face. Topaz managed to block the sword while her partner was trying to deal with the two rubies.

"Get off of me!" she cried as the pair of smaller gems clung to her head and tried smashing her gem. The only reason they kept missing was her constant thrashing throwing off their aim.

"Only once you're in shards!" shouted one of the other gems. Her boasts did not fall on deaf ears, though, as the other topaz heard her. In a flash she knocked the nephrite, threw herself towards the rubies and ripped them off her partner with a hand each. She poofed them by slamming them into each other with enough force to crack their gems.

"We've had enough threats for one lifetime…" muttered the gem angrily as both halves of Topaz faced the unimpressed nephrite.

"So you managed to defeat three commonplace soldiers," she yawned, "How threatening."

Without a word, the former bodyguards joined hands and fused without any effort. The now-whole Topaz summoned her weapon and pointed it straight at the pilot. "I'm getting very sick of gems like you. You think your position is everything."

"Like it isn't?" scoffed the loyalist, "If you don't have your place with the Diamonds, you have nothing."

"I have happiness. I have actual friends who care about me. I have a home that won't be taken away from me if I step out of line here."

"Of course you'd relish those things. Deserters need some way to justify their existence once they know they have no purpose."

The two stared at each other for a few moments before rushing straight at each other. There was no more posturing or debating outside of their weapons clashing again and again. Topaz's pugil stick had greater reach and defensive capabilities, but the nephrite's katana was far more lethal. One clean hit from the blade meant instant death for the fusion and combined with her lesser combat experience, Topaz was soon put on the ropes. A feint from the nephrite worked in getting through her guard and smashing the hilt of the sword into Topaz's chin and knocking her over. The cocky captain placed her foot on the fusion's throat and held the weapon steady over her face.

"Now then, any preference on which of your components is shattered first or would you like to die together?" Despite having a large spherical gemstone for an eye, the Topaz could see the malice in her gaze.

"You're… a clod."

The nephrite glowered as she raised her sword for the killing blow, but was caught off-guard by her hair suddenly catching fire! As she screamed at the sudden pain, a slim scarlet form tackled into her.

"Nice try, jerk!" jeered Cinnabar as she held the panicking nephrite down, "But no one bullies the Crystal Gems!"

"Not bad," admired Adamite as she bubbled the three gems from earlier, "For someone of your background and inexperience, you performed well."

"Heh, thanks…" sighed Topaz as she picked herself up, "But I would've been done for without you two."

"I'm surprised at your presence here to begin with. Did you leave your crew elsewhere?"

"They're with Lars, the old captain of the ship. He thought I'd be better off fighting out here while he takes over. I guess he was right since those two people would've been kidnapped if I wasn't here…"

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?!" screamed the nephrite, her hair now a few burnt strands, "The Diamonds will shatter you all! You're all wanted criminals already! What's wrong with you?!"

"Pipe down, loser!" demanded Cinnabar. She prepared to fire at her captive again, but Adamite stopped her.

"Actually, I will answer your question. What's 'wrong' with us is that we no longer want to live in an oppressive society that considers our lives as disposable on a whim. Pardon us for daring to want to be treated with a modicum of respect even as we literally annihilate inhabited planets for the sake of three self-entitled egomaniacs who literally call themselves perfect despite mounting evidence to the contrary."

"Oh-ho!" said Cinnabar, "Someone got burned! And I would know, I've caused enough of them!"

"You've been spending far too much time with Amethyst…" groaned the earthen gem before Topaz ended the conversation by poofing the terrified nephrite with a stomp to the back so hard it cracked the pavement underneath her.

"Well, that's that," said Cinnabar as Topaz bubbled the captain of the group, "You wanna tag along with us?"

"Sure. I think I could use some backup right about now…"

"Great! Just don't start making out in the middle of a fight and you'll be good."

"Eh… Right…"

"Well, at least it was a learning experience," shrugged Adamite, trying hard not to laugh for once. The trio then ran off down the street as they heard a car driving in the distance. Even still, they hoped it was just simply chauffeuring people to safety instead of more danger.

After running a quick round of diagnostics through all her devices to clear her head, Peridot was back in business. She had actually decided to bring a trash can lid from earlier this time, thinking it was a smarter option to keep something for self-defense on her. She had been making her way from cover to cover for ten minutes now, doing everything in her power to avoid a direct confrontation. Her lid had proven essential in that with her using it to cause a distraction whenever a Homeworld gem got too close for comfort.

With her making steady progress, she eventually spotted the exact person she wanted to see. "Steven!"

"Peridot!" replied the boy, "You're still okay?"

"Surprisingly, yes. I was briefly restricted to the base, but now I plan to assist with further reconnaissance and rescue operations!"

"Great! I just brought a few more people back so I could use some help."

The two then walked down the nearest avenue, Steven's shield at the ready along with Peridot's makeshift weapon. As they made their way in a random direction, they noticed how eerily quiet the streets were.

"It doesn't feel like it's been an hour," said Steven, wanting to fill the silence.

"Agreed. By this point, it would make sense that any remaining townspeople would be long gone from the city, found a sufficient enough hiding place to remain undetected, or…"

"What? Be abducted?"

"Unfortunately, yes. While I admit humans have shown tremendous creativity, the facts are that they lack any ability to fight them on an equal measure and would need to rely on stealth and luck to escape unscathed."

The boy remained quiet for a moment, the only sounds being their feet on the pavement and the occasional night breeze, before they heard something else up ahead. Two more sets of feet running towards them, but thankfully for them they were friendly.

"Garnet! Pearl!" called Steven, "Over here!"

"You're alright!" rejoiced Pearl as she scooped him into her arms and coddled him, "Are you dehydrated? Have you been injured? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Ease up, Pearl, he's okay," assured Garnet, "We all are."

"Pretty remarkable considering the odds," boasted Peridot, "But then again, what else do you expect of the Crystal Gems?"

"Song numbers," replied the fusion blankly, getting the other three laugh. The foursome then headed towards the boardwalk as they traded stories while also staying on guard for any newfound threats.

"There's only one thing I don't understand," inquired Pearl, "Why are they all doing this? What's with the Diamonds' sudden fascination in humans."

"That's a good question," admitted Garnet, "But for me, all that matters is stopping them."

"Well," considered Peridot, "It's no secret that gems look down on any other species due to their supposed inferiority so that greatly limits they're options."

"Maybe they just want to kidnap them to spite us?" thought Steven.

"Sounds very implausible to me. While yes, the Diamond Authority is egotistical to a ludicrous degree, they would not put this much effort merely for the sake of hatred."

"True," agreed Pearl, "They're all too pragmatic for that. But if there is an actual motivation, what is it?"

Before anyone could answer that, Steven's phone rang. The boy confusedly looked at the called ID and answered. "Lars? What's up?"

"Steven, sorry for the delay, but I've got some info I think you'll want."

"Wait, what?! Where are you?"

"On the Sun Incinerator. This way Topaz can be out fighting and you have one more person, or two, whatever, on the field without losing the help of the ship."

"Huh, that's pretty smart. So, what do you have tell us? I have a few of the other Crystal Gems with me."

"Good, they'll want to hear this. I wanted to find all the ships these guys came from, but once I found the lead ship I noticed something weird. They're all set up in a circle."

"Wait, what?" questioned Peridot, "That's pretty abnormal for Homeworld protocol."

"Well, normal or not, that's what I found. There's a big finger-shaped ship and eight others forming a circle all around the town."

"Do you have a map of their locations?" spoke Pearl into the phone, "With that, we could launch a rescue operation for any captives!"

"Yeah, I've got one. I'll send it to Steven ASAP."

"Perfect," thanks Garnet, "We still have a numbers disadvantage, but now we can use the element of surprise back on them."

"We should regroup everyone first," added Pearl, "There's no telling how many gems are still left and we need all we can get."

"Agreed. Lars, position yourself near the main ship. We'll have Steven call you back once everyone is here so we can make a plan of attack."

"Got it. Rhodonite's been hearing everything and she's already taking us there. Good luck!"

"Thanks, Lars!" said Steven, "We'll be ready before you know it!"

Once they hung up, the air was noticeably brighter. Three of the four had a concrete plan and all they had to do now was gather everyone up. The sole exception was Peridot, her inquisitive mind stuck on the circumstances. She knew better than any of them that Homeworld stuck to protocol like most humans stick to breathing. The only reason she could think of for this would be that they had something else planned.

"I see," spoke Silver Agate to the holo-screen, "You have only managed to capture eight humans?"

"Yes," admitted the nephrite in charge of one of the fighters, "My forces have suffered heavy losses with only five of them currently here and an estimated ten more out in the field. That leaves well over half of my assigned gems unaccounted for."

"That's nothing!" barged in a jasper from another ship's bridge, "My nephrite got trounced! And according to one of our rubies, Rose Quartz herself took out an entire squad in two minutes!"

"That is truly concerning," replied the agate, composed as usual, "It appears that the rumors of her exploits from so long ago were not exaggerated. All in all, this mission is quickly turning into a failure."

"I have more troubling news," interceded the nephrite, "I've spotted the vessel commandeered by the Crystal Gems flying over the perimeter. According to other reports from the surrounding ships, they have also seen the same."

"Meaning they now know our location…"

"Oh, that's just great!" exploded the jasper, "Now they can storm the ships if they want to! What are we supposed to do now?!"

"You will cease that tone or I will personally have you court martialed." The orange gem wisely calmed down hearing such a threat. Having to answer to Blue Diamond herself was not worth her shooting her mouth off.

"Now then," continued the agate, "It's no secret that we are losing. Be that as it may, White Diamond has initiated a contingency plan that will force Rose into complying or else all the potential hostages will be dealt with. For that to work, I will need one gem manning the bridge of each ship. Send out an immediate order to all troops that they are to return to their vessel with any humans or tow. If they run into any rebels en route, they are to circumvent them at all costs. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Silver Agate!" saluted both gems.

"Excellent. Report back to me once all eight captains are accounted for. That will be all."

As both of the gems signed off, Silver felt a small twinge of sympathy. She guessed that the infamous Rose was more than likely celebrating her accomplishment, perhaps even planning a counterstrike to save the few humans they had managed to capture. The agate let herself show a sly grin at the thought of her expression when she knew what the immaculate White Diamond had in store for her.

It did not take long for the entirety of the Crystal Gems to be reunited despite the chaos. As they all gathered in front of the temple, the most exciting thing was many of the other gems' reactions to Greg's new suit.

"Dad?! Is that-?" gawked Steven as he took in the powered armor.

"Yep, your old man's officially suited up and helped out… And boy, is this harder than it looks…" mumbled the father as his son hugged him.

"Pssh, please," scoffed Amethyst, "You should have seen him, dude! The old man here has been sniping fools and cut one sorry clod in half!"

"Well," started Peridot, "I don't mean to brag about my handiwork but-" A series of rocks then flew up and covered her mouth.

"You're welcome for sparing you all from her pompous ranting," said Adamite with a rare smirk on her face.

"Ah, you've learned the ways of the Crystal Gems very fast," complimented Lapis while her fellow meep-morpist tried to scream in outrage through her stone gag.

"Alright, let's focus," said Garnet, though she clearly had to restrain a chuckle, "Now that we have the location of Homeworld's ships, we need to formulate a plan to invade the ships and liberate any human passengers onboard."

"We'll definitely need the Sun Incinerator for this," started Pearl as she paced on the sand, "Perhaps a pincer maneuver with the lead vessel…"

"The other option would be we start infiltrating ships in order to rescue people, but we could be at a severe numbers disadvantage. Homeworld may not be used to restraining organic lifeforms, but they do know something about security."

"I'm with Garnet on that one," spoke Topaz, "Those blasters could probably cause a major explosion with a direct hit and the last thing we need is dead people on our conscience."

"Well, there's more of us than there are ships," said Bismuth, "So why don't we all just pair up, highjack one of the things and then set them all to blow up once we're sure everyone's gone."

"Your propensity for destruction hasn't changed…" moaned Pearl, remembering one very unfortunate incident with an underwater base.

"Ooh, me likey!" agreed Amethyst, "Maybe we'll get another gem to scream at us when they're blasting off like last time!"

"Ditto!" said Cinnabar, "And if they can't be blown up then I can-"

"Last resort only," commanded Adamite, "And only if it gets approved by the rest of the group."

"Awwwwwwww! Why can't I ever have fun?"

"We'll make that plan C," assured Garnet, "Plan B is the idea with the Sun Incinerator. As risky as it sounds, it makes sense that we check out each ship and ensure that every human in there is safe before we do anything too rash."

"Steven," asked Pearl, "Are you following all of this? I understand this is a very dangerous prospect, but-"

"No way!" assured the hybrid, "I totally get it! We've got to save anyone who's been thrown onto those ships and then take them down. It may be a lot, but it's worth it!"

"That's the spirit!" encouraged Bismuth while giving him a thumbs up, "Now then, let's split up and get ready to kick some butt!"

But then, just before they could split, their eyes were all drawn to a blinding white object rising over the horizon. Another dazzling projectile showed up seconds later, then a third, then a fourth, and so on until nine of them stopped in a perfect circle several hundred feet above the town. The mild distraction turned into a full-blown problem when suddenly a massive white circle of light formed around them and grew larger by the second. It expanded outwards faster than any of them could imagine until it began arcing down in every direction and soon the entire town along with several surrounding miles of land and ocean were trapped under a gigantic translucent dome.

"Oh no…" gaped Peridot, "That hunch I had was right."

"What hunch?" asked Cinnabar.

"That they had a backup plan…"

Lapis, however, was barely listening. She was already flying up to the edge of the dome and trying to punch her way out with a giant water fist. Despite the immense strength behind it, the dome did not even budge.

"Try going underneath it," ordered Garnet as she looked on with the rest of the team. Lapis tried to lift the dome from underneath with a pair of awua hands, but still nothing.

"No good," she reported, "It's like it's set into the Earth's crust."

"I'll be the judge of that," demanded Adamite before she rocketed beneath the ground. The others waited with baited breath only to find her propel herself out of the hole.

"I-it's impossible! There's a bottom to this bubble several miles underground!"

"Then that means…" moaned Pearl, "We're completely stuck. They planned this entire thing from the start…"

"Oh how right you are!" spoke a haughty voice all around them. The Crystal Gems all looked around for the sound, but found nothing.

"Show yourself!" shouted Bismuth into the sky, "I'm not gonna be intimidated by some pet of the Diamonds!"

"'Pet?' I'm afraid you're quite mistaken. I have legions of gems just aching to take care of you, but I've decided to take a personal interest in this mission…"

"No!" whispered Pearl, completely horrified, "It can't be…"

"Pearl?!" yelled Greg, his legs shaking under his armor, "What is all this?! What's the bigwig talking about?"

"I have an idea," mumbled Peridot, equally terrified, "And I for once wish I'm dead wrong."

"Snap out of it, you two!" barked Amethyst, "We've beaten everything else they've thrown at us! Even that brigade from White Diamond got blown up!"

"Ah, you must be the amethyst responsible for that debacle," noted the voice, "I'll make a note to have your gem examined before Blue has you shattered."

"Everyone, look up!" commanded Garnet. The group complied and saw the same objects that formed the dome were now projecting a holo-screen the size of a football field. And from that massive screen was the serene yet stern face of White Diamond staring down on them and the rest of Beach City.

"W-White Diamond?!" gawked Steven, "T-that's her?!"

"Yes, yes, I understand my presence is magnificent," gloated the matriarch, "But enough of that. I've decided to watch the rest of this operation unfold firsthand. I must admit, your tenacity has proven quite impressive, Rose Quartz."

"You've gotta be kidding me…" groaned Lapis, "What are we, playthings to her?"

"Pretty much," grumbled Topaz, all too familiar with how the Diamonds treated their subjects.

"What do you want?" yelled Pearl, "If you think we're just going to let you intimidate us into silence, we won't be swayed!"

White Diamond burst into laughter. "Oh my goodness, the rumors were true! A renegade pearl who thinks she can fight! Rose Quartz, what have you been doing all this time?!"

While Steven's eye twitched hearing him be called his mother's name for the umpteenth time, he tried to remain civil. "We haven't been doing anything to you for the past few thousand years. If you'd leave us alone, we wouldn't bother you."

"Well, see, that's the issue. While we could leave you on your desolate ball of rock and saltwater that you seem to adore so much, there's the tiny issue of being the only gem in the universe responsible for shattering a Diamond. That is an act that can never go unpunished."

"Jeez," sulked Cinnabar, "And I thought I could be petty…"

"'Petty?'" asked White, "You believe that I am being petty? That I should merely let bygones be bygones and allow you to live?"

"Yes!" answered Steven, "That's exactly it! Can we try that? Please?"

The matriarch chuckled at the thought, honestly amused by the suggestion, before her expressions suddenly went flat. All the Crystal Gems, even the ones who never knew White before today, felt a sudden urge to run.

"Let me explain all the reasons why I will _never_ let you off for your crimes, Rose Quartz. First of all, it would be a complete mockery of our justice system. If you were to get off scot-free and the rest of the gem population learned, our entire civilization could descend into anarchy! After all, if a crime of that magnitude were to be pardoned there would be an open invitation to dismantle our entire social structure!"

"You mean a rigid caste system where everyone is forced into one job?" grumbled Peridot.

"Yes, exactly. Secondly, there are still many higher-ups here who remember your original spat. The members of Pink Diamond's court and her remaining subjects would all be horrified to learn that her shatterer was left alive. You saw how sore that Jasper you also shattered was about the issue, right? Or are you too blinded by your righteous cause to notice other gems aside from your little circle of rejects?"

"But…" stuttered Steven, but he was cut off.

"Then, of course, there's the matter of Yellow and Blue. While the former is reluctant to admit it, losing Pink is something she takes personal responsibility for. She was the one who gave in to Pink's request for a colony, after all. And Blue… Well, it's safe to say Blue has been utterly traumatized by the whole affair. Even to this day, she mourns Pink constantly and has made it _very _clear that she looks to have your shards in her personal palace as a reminder of your deed."

That caused Steven to gulp. He felt all his nerve leaving his body with every word she said, but she still was not done.

"And that, naturally, is only the largest offense for you. There are countless war crimes to consider such as, like my pearl mentioned, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost from the war you started."

"Shut up!" demanded Amethyst, "Most of us weren't even there for that!"

"Perhaps, but it seems you have all taken the banner as the Crystal Gems who were responsible for the war so-"

"Okay, that's enough!" shouted Garnet, shocking everybody present, "We get it! You don't like us! You miss Pink, but we can't fix it! Just stop with all the grandstanding and get to the point!"

"Uh…" whispered Greg, "Are you alright?"

"Sorry, but that voice is really grating."

"Firstly, I heard that, but that's not the main reason for all of this," spoke White. The Crystal Gems, even Greg, all looked up to see the Diamond's eyes were closed as she spoke as calmly as possible. "There is, admittedly, one singular motivation that is driving me in particular. One that supersedes any formal law or discretion."

The sudden calm put the team further on edge. Pearl, trying to fight her legs' shaking, spoke up. "And… What is that?"

"I _hate _you." The diamond's eyes opened and bore into their souls. Her face twisted into an angry grimace that suddenly them all fear for their lives. She spoke with so much anger that they swore any moment she would leap through the screen and tear them all to pieces.

"I cannot properly express how much I loathe each and every one of you 'Crystal Gems'. Your ideology is a blight to our way of life, one that cost thousands of your own kind their lives and for what? A bunch of weak, pathetic, gangly, useless organic lifeforms that are eons behind us in terms of technology and culture?! It almost sounds like a cruel joke!"

Steven wanted to speak up, but he was silenced by the raw venom in her voice. And she still was not done.

"If my hatred could manifest itself, it could bridge the hundreds of thousands of parsecs between our planets with room to spare! If I could harness it, it would be a source of power that would reduce your entire solar system to ashes in a nanosecond! And yet still it isn't enough… I can never repay you and your followers enough for the damage you have done to our kind. Not just for the actions you've done, but the poisonous mindset you represent. If there was talk of gems choosing their own paths and acting as they wished, we would be reduced to anarchy!"

Then, just as it quickly as it came, her vitriol vanished and she resumed her usual composure. "Now then, since you all understand my motivation, I think it's clear what you all should do. Rose Quartz, you will surrender yourself for incarceration and finally answer for your crimes. The remainder of your Crystal Gems will be shattered for their defiance."

"W-Why would we do that?" asked a much meeker Peridot, "What's to gain?"

"Well, solace that the pain and suffering you've been wreaking on our society is an attribute… But, in the more conventional sense, I will officially designate this planet as unable to colonize and thus your precious organics will be spared."

"W-W-What's the c-catch?" stuttered Pearl, now on her knees thanks to her nerves.

"I'm sure you've noticed the sphere now surrounding your headquarters. If you refuse to hand yourself over to us, it will annihilate everything within its boundaries down to a molecular level."

"B-But," argued Lapis, "You h-have your troops here… Won't t-they all be-"

"Destroyed along with them? Certainly, but they all know the stakes of this mission. The chance to see the infamous Rose Quartz utterly disintegrated made the whole lot of them cheer and race off to get a head start. That, Rose, is the proper level of obedience us Diamonds expect from gems."

"You guys are completely insane!" shouted Bismuth, "You're going to just throw away their lives?! I swear if I find you, I'm gonna-!"

"-And this is exactly what I'm trying to correct…" sighed White, "Such delusions you've given these gems, Rose. You've turned them into your slaves, bent on doing your will and abandoning the purpose we chose for them and for what? All for some nondescript world and the peons that live on it? It's enough to bring a tear to your eye."

"Stop it!" demanded Adamite, "You're trying to rationalize the slaughter of your own people for the sake of a _grudge_ and yet we're the party in the wrong?! What kind of logic is that?!"

"My logic is entirely infallible. Our way of life must be protected and your stubborn refusal to adhere to your design is entirely your own fault. Oh, and by the way, if your all refuse to surrender my vow to leave Earth untouched will not stand. We will simply colonize the remainder of the planet and have it memorialized as the sole colony under Pink Diamond's name."

"And that means all the other people on Earth will…" whimpered Greg, his head spinning as he fought the urge to throw up.

"C-Come on guys, don't give up!" tried Amethyst, "We can still do this! We can't just sit around and let that oversized clod beat us!"

"Oh, really? Because it looks to me like your beloved leader and her little renegade have already forfeited."

The group all wondered what she was talking about until they all looked at Steven and Pearl. Both of them were completely unconscious, but the latter was even more shocking as the large white gem on her forehead was entirely gray.

"Well now, since it seems like she can't answer me, which one of you is the leader?"

"Me," answered Garnet, "And the answer is still no."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too hasty with the lives of everything on this planet. Wouldn't that just be tragic to see all of your hard work be undone out of obstinacy? I will give you one hour of this planet's time to reconsider, but wait any longer and I order Silver Agate to atomize you all."

**So, now we finally have White Diamond with the Crystal Gems trapped in a giant bubble and Pearl's the next one to get a power-up. So much to do for next time that I just might get this one finished before the end of the next decade!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	45. Unlocking Pearl

**And now it's time for the third of the original Crystal Gem trio to get her upgrade...**

As Steven slowly opened his eyes, his heart was still pounding. He heard every scathing word from White Diamond, and it chilled him like nothing else. A small part of him was actually grateful to be put in this situation again since now he could at least contribute something instead of worrying about some invincible about to blow up the town for the second time.

He stood up and began looking around the area for Pearl and was caught off-guard by what he was looking at. Compared to Garnet's volcanic winter and Amethyst's void of discolored rubbish, this realm was the most normal. The sky was a gorgeous night with millions of stars illuminating the black abyss above him. He was standing in a pleasant meadow where flowers of every shape and color grew around his feet with a city skyline shining off in the distance.

"Well," he muttered to himself, "Leave it to Pearl to make even her mind tidy. Now, where is she?"

He took his first step forward and noticed how all the plants parted around him. He even tried suddenly changing direction, but the flowers constantly avoided his feet. After a few moments, the terrain changed to pristine white sand with several cacti and multiple tents and huts of various sizes dotting the dunes in front of him. The only similarity was the city still miles away.

"Pearl?" he called out, "Are you here? Hello?"

The gem herself then emerged from one of the huts looking completely normal. "Oh, Steven! I wasn't expecting company! Excuse me…"

She went back inside for several minutes before returning with a cheese plate in one hand and bottle of water in the other.

"Thanks," replied the boy as he took a sip and nibbled on a cube of cheddar, "You, uh, doing okay?"

"Well, there are some issues bothering me with the decoration of these old wigwams…"

"Wait, what?"

Two neutral-colored pieces of fabric appeared in her hand. "What do you think works better, dark beige or creamy white?"

"Uh, it's still a little dark…"

One second later, the sky immediately changed from starry night to radiant day. While Steven was surprised by this, Pearl simply stood there as she looked from one sample to the other.

"I'm personally leaning more towards the beige. Feels more striking, but what's your say?"

"Pearl, I don't think that's what's bothering you."

"No? I suppose beige it is then!"

All of the teepees immediately changed into the darker color and the gem was still not reacting to any of the oddity around her. Steven had to resist the urge to splash his water on his face. Whether that was from trying to keep calm or the thought that the liquid would adamantly refuse to sully him was another issue.

"Well, now that that's been settled, what else to do? Feels like there's so much tidying up to do around here…"

"Stop it, Pearl! We've got way bigger problems to be worrying about!"

"That's very true… And I really could use your help with it."

"Really? What is it? Tell me!"

She then summoned a bucket of paint in one hand and a rolling brush in the other. "There's a few walls in that town over there that could definitely use a new coat! Come on, it'll be fun!"

And then, as a final addition to the strangeness, the city began to approach them. Neither of them took a step, but in about a minute the distance between the metropolis and the two of them was cleared in an instant. They were even both standing on asphalt before they even knew it.

"Oh boy, this is gonna take a while…" the boy groaned as he took up a paintbrush. He figured the manual labor would be the easiest thing to take care of in this place.

"Um, are we certain this is a good idea?" asked Peridot.

"We need to try something!" insisted Cinnabar. "And plus, this sounded really cool!"

"Everyone, stand back," ordered Garnet as she and Amethyst stood apart from each other. The rest of the Crystal Gems waited with bated breath for their fusion to commence. One hasty round of dancing later and soon all of them were gawking at the titanic form of Sugilite.

Bismuth, still rather new to fusion, gulped at the sight. "Man… I can't tell if that's amazing or super weird."

"A bit of both, honestly," commented Topaz, "But I'm good with being a little more… ordinary."

"Alright, stand back," barked the violet titan, "And let my four best friends pop this bubble!"

The air was hopeful as the fusion launched herself at the translucent bubble with unbelievable speed given her gigantic size. Her already monstrous strength was heighted further thanks to Amethyst's supersonic speed as her punch would have been enough to rip almost anything to pieces with one blow.

The key word being almost. All four of her boulder-sized fists smashed into the barrier cutting off the ocean and created a deafening boom on impact, but there was not a scratch on it.

"Well," lamented Lapis, "So much for that idea…"

"Shut it down there!" yelled Sugilite, "I'm not done just yet!"

Now fueled by her anger, the fusion hammered away at it fast enough that her feet became almost invisible to the naked eye. The earth itself trembled from her power, each blow enough to make even a Diamond wince, but still to no avail. She even lit all of her hands on fire to see if the added heat could help her, but still nothing.

"Someone wanna tell her to let up?!" shouted Greg over the cacophony, "I think I'm going deaf!"

"I think there's a few tectonic plates being shifted…" added Adamite, impressed with the display even if nothing came out of it.

"COME ON, YOU STUPID BUBBLE, POP!" roared Sugilite as she almost started foaming at the mouth. At last, she stopped her pummeling and took a step back. While the others were all helpful that she had relented, that changed when she summoned her signature flail in each of her hands.

"I highly suggest we find cover…" whimpered Peridot, "Now!"

"Everyone inside!" called Bismuth and the others wasted no time following suit. Topaz was sure to grab the still-unconscious Steven and Pearl. Now behind the relative safety of the force field around the beach house, they watched from the porch as the purple powerhouse's final move came.

"Alright, White Diamond," muttered the fusion, swearing she could hear the monarch laughing at her, "Let's see your tech stop this!"

All four of her flails began spinning with enough speed to generate hurricane-level wind. Both of the weapons in her right hand became coated in massive spheres of ice dotted with spikes while the ones in her right ignited with blue flames.

"SUGILITE STORM SMASHER!"

She let all four flails fly at once. The combination of the elements between them, however, had the unintentional side-effect of merging the two into electricity by accident. Putting that much energy under such intense pressure caused a massive explosion that also consumed the fusion. The gems and people from within the temple's force field looked on in amazement as they protected from the shockwave that made every pane of glass in the town shatter at once. Cinnabar was even left ooo-ing at the destruction, her inner pyromaniac bowing down to the masterful work before her even if fire was only partially involved.

Once the dust settled, the group saw that nothing had changed except Sugilite was now missing her shades and all five of her bright violet eyes were glaring at the bubble.

"You may have won this round, clod…" she mumbled under her breath, "But I'm gonna smash you to a pulp if I ever see you."

Much to the Crystal Gems' relief, the fusion willingly split up after that and made their way out of the water. Both Garnet and Amethyst looked disappointed by the result, but they were both grateful that this was the smoothest fusion they had ever had.

"Worth a try," grumbled Amethyst, "But now what do we do? That's the toughest fusion we've got without Pearl around."

"Not sure Alexandrite would've done much better," commented Garnet, "And as much as I hate to admit it, looks like White Diamond wasn't bluffing when she said this dome can't be broken."

Before any more suggestions could be put forward, they were distracted by Steven's phone ringing in his pocket. Peridot decided to answer the call herself and saw that the caller was Lars.

"Greeting, Captain," she answered the line, "This is Peridot speaking. How can we assist you?"

"What the stardust was that?!" hollered the captain over the phone, "Did you all do that, or did Emerald come back with a bomb?!"

"Relax, that was merely an attempt to escape the barricade that has encased Beach City. I assume you've already tried that yourselves?"

"Yeah, but even at max power our blasters didn't make a dent in it. You all got some hidden weapon that can disarm this thing? If you don't, then that means we now have 55 minutes until the town gets blown off the map and Homeworld turns Earth into a husk."

"Understood…" she then hung up the phone and promptly fell onto her back. "Anyone else here have more ideas? Their ship isn't cutting it either…"

"I don't know, call White Diamond and ask her to call the whole thing off?" snarked Amethyst, "Maybe if we all agree to be her maids in her palace or whatever."

"Wait…" realized Garnet, "She said that Silver Agate is the one who pushes the detonator. She's more than likely the commanding officer for this whole attack."

"So?" asked Lapis, "What, we win her over to our side with a song and some cookies?"

"Wait, I get it!" said Bismuth, "If she's the one in charge, then that means her ship is here! That's where she has the whole controls for this bubble!"

"And if we launch an attack and take over the ship," continued Garnet, "We might be able to deactivate the whole thing in time."

"Alright!" cheered Cinnabar, immediately feeling better, "Let's get in there and burn everything!"

"Wait," advised Adamite, "We might also have to watch for any humans that have been kidnapped in the meantime."

"True," acknowledged Topaz, "That means we should try to bust everyone out before we try anything too drastic."

"We'll do a systematic sweep of the place. Peridot, bring up the map of the ships' location that Lars sent us. We'll move as a group in a clockwise fashion starting with the nearest vessel. Any objections?"

"Wait about Steven and Pearl?" brought up Lapis, "Should we just leave them here?"

"Keep them in the house so that way they're at least under our force field."

"I'll keep an eye on them," offered Greg, "I think I've had enough fighting for one day and going to their HQ sounds like way too much for my blood."

"Are you sure, man?" questioned Amethyst, "You've been kicking pretty good butt with that tech of yours."

"He's got a point," spoke Garnet, "Plus, I'm sure Steven and Pearl will want to join in once they're up and about again. Call us as soon as they're ready."

The father nodded as he stayed behind while the rest of the Crystal Gems headed outside. The pair, now sitting in chairs thanks to Topaz, quickly got the attention of all the rescued people still taking shelter in the beach house.

"Steven?" Sadie called, jostling the boy by the shoulders, "Steven?! What did those creeps do to you?"

"Maybe he tuckered himself out fighting those things?" thought Peedee, "Or he just fainted because that queen alien said she's gonna blow up the town!"

"Alright, everyone, take it easy!" assured Greg, standing on top of the kitchen counter to get everyone's attention. Once he had the entire room silent, he continued to speak. "Look, I know this whole situation is absolutely bonkers. Yes, things are looking pretty bad right now, but life around here has never been normal. We've had giant red eyes, spaceships shaped like hands crash land here, an evil pixie kidnapping people with a magic wand and Lars come back as a pink space pirate!"

The crowd was still shaky, but Greg pushed on. "No matter what junk has come to town, the Crystal Gems have been there to keep everyone safe. And yes, I know why Steven's out of it right now, but trust me when I say he'll be fine. He and Pearl will be up and at 'em soon enough and once they are, they'll be out with the others sending those aliens packing!"

"Yeah! You go, Greg!" cheered Barb, the older postwomen eager for some good news. Her cheer soon caught on and the whole room went from dreadful to applauding in a matter of seconds. While the reality of the Diamond's threat still lingered, now the crowd was put at ease that the Crystal Gems would be there to save them.

Greg considered himself especially lucky in that respect because his doubt was worse than the rest. He had to watch over his unconscious son and one of his guardians all while the clock kept ticking.

"_Guys," _he thought pleadingly, _"Get back as soon as you can. I may have some skills and this suit, but I'm still an old man who wants his family to be safe and sound again."_

Beach City was used to silent nights as there was no nightlife to speak of. Even for this neighborhood at 3 AM, though, the air was completely silent with only the footsteps of the Crystal Gems leaving the sidewalks and neighborhoods behind for the acres of field surrounding the town. Unlike before, though, all eight of them moved in unison as they charged towards one of the market spots on Peridot's map. While the quiet of the night was soothing in a way, it also put them all on alert.

"Still no resistance," muttered Garnet, "I'm all but certain White overheard everything we said and yet nothing."

"I'd theorize they're allowing us to act out of sheer, unchecked arrogance," sneered Peridot from atop Garnet's shoulders, "They still don't see us as any sort of actual threat, but bugs to be squashed."

"Well, figures she puts all of us in a jar…" jested Bismuth.

"Heh, good one," replied Amethyst, "If that's true, then let's all bust out of here and then fly to Homeworld so we can sting her giant face!"

"Can we really do that?" pleaded Cinnabar, "Pleeeeeease?"

"Everyone!" warned Topaz, "I can see some Homeworld goons coming towards us!"

Sure enough, the yellow fusion was correct as a dozen assorted gems appeared over the crest of a hill in front of them to cut them off.

"Where do you think you're going?" smarmily asked another topaz, though this one with her gem on her knee.

"Where else?" answered Lapis, "We're gonna break into your ship and maybe blow it up."

"_After _we look for any people you mud-balls stole…" added Bismuth, already changing her hands into hammerheads.

"Yeah?" dared one of the jaspers in the group, "You'll have to get past us first."

"Good point. See ya!" taunted Amethyst as she zipped off at several hundred miles per hour, bowling several of the goons over in the process. Before any of the Homeworld mooks could run after her or even warn the others on board, Garnet got their attention by leaping straight at the same jasper and punching her several hundred feet away.

"Now then," goaded the fusion, "I suggest you pay attention to me."

And with that invitation, an all-out brawl emerged between the two sides. While the Crystal Gems with both halves of Topaz were slightly outnumbered, they quickly made up for it in spontaneity. Garnet, in particular, took down three of them thanks to her elemental powers leading to many surprised faces as she burned, froze or just pummeled them into submission.

Peridot and Lapis, despite still being shaky in combat, managed to hold their own against an aggressive pair of amethysts. The latter used her flight and water wings to her advantage and bombarded one of them with her impressive speed before the purple bruiser could overpower her. While Peridot did not have an ample supply of metal like she did in the middle of Beach City, she did have Bismuth to help finish the other one off once she managed to distract her foe.

Speaking of Bismuth, she ended up back to back with Topaz against a pernicious trio of rubies all baying for their shards. They decided to use their obvious size advantage to the fullest and ended up squashing the runts under their feet. That left Adamite and Cinnabar with the last few who made the poor mistake of underestimating them for being obsolete gems. One round of being buried to their necks after being charbroiled halfway to being melted later, all of the goons were bubbled and sent back to the temple.

Amethyst returned a few seconds with two humans holding onto her back for dear life. "Alright, that's one ship down! Let's move out!"

They could not get very far, however, before another six Homeworld troops to cut them off.

"Uh, you sure about that?" warily asked Peridot, "Because it looks like they called for backup!"

"What, you thought the magnificent White Diamond didn't have a backup plan?!" goaded a jasper. Then another jasper materialized out of thin air right next to her.

"You disgusting rebels were right! White was listening to everything you did, but that still doesn't matter!"

A pair of rubies soon appeared in front of them. "This whole bubble is one big warp pad! There's literally thousands of us lined up to stop you once and for all!"

"Are you all crazy?!" yelled Bismuth, "That crazy clod of a Diamond said everything in here's gonna get vaporized in less than an hour!"

"We don't care!" shouted dozens of voices of unison. In only a matter of seconds, over fifty Homeworld troops surrounded the eight Crystal Gems and boxed them in. Among them was none other than Silver Agate, staring down at them from the same hill from before.

"My Diamond has given me the chance to wipe out the sole rebellion from our race," she boasted, looking accomplished all the while, "And while I may be disintegrated, it means that your leader's toxic influence will never infect any gem again. I may not be a member of Pink Diamond's court, but it is the least I could do to avenge her shattering."

"Uh, Garnet?" Topaz asked nervously, "Any ideas?"

"Hope Steven and Pearl wake up fast," replied the fusion as she readied her gauntlets, "Because now we've got 48 minutes before we're all dust."

In stark contrast to the tension and dread going on outside, Steven and Pearl were still pleasantly painting buildings within the latter's mind. While a welcome departure from the more turbulent times from before, the continued calm was also beginning to unnerve the teen. It did not help that Pearl's little world continued to defy logic on multiple occasions. The buildings they were painting literally shrank so they could reach the higher floors, the color of the pain changed automatically and their brushes never once splattered or dripped.

All while the two were painting some parts of the empty town red, Steven and Pearl made pleasant small talk. The gem, unlike Amethyst, was willing to talk about almost anything and treated the entire affair like a pleasant afternoon. After what felt like hours of painting, yet still not feeling at all tired, the two stopped for a break atop the brick apartment building now freshly painted purple. A picnic basket was already waiting for the pair and a gentle breeze kicked in.

"Well, I'd say this place is looking much more eye-catching," commented Pearl happily, "Now, what to do next?"

Steven, still not sensing anything unusual with Pearl, sat down on the blanket. "I don't know, is there anything else that needs cleaning?"

"Well, naturally, but perhaps some variety is in order," thought Pearl as she stared out into the city. She began debating between washing windows of the more modern skyscrapers or trimming the foliage along the streets. "Go ahead and eat, Steven."

The boy dug around the basket and found all of his favorite foods within. A bottle of his favorite juice, a ham sandwich topped with mustard and the crusts cut off, some fry bits from the boardwalk still piping hot and, at the very bottom…

"A Cookie Cat?!" he exclaimed, feeling the still-cold dessert.

"Goodness, it has been a long time since you've had one…" reminisced Pearl fondly, "And yet it doesn't feel like it at all."

Steven could not help but smile as he opened his long-lost favorite treat and took a heaping bite out of the ice cream sandwich. While it was sweet on his tongue, he also felt a small pang of disappointment that Pearl quickly noted.

"What's wrong?"

"It tastes good but…"

"…Not as good as you remember. I know the feeling…"

"Hm?" Pearl once again faced the skyline as she began talking.

"It's been about a year since that little escapade with those desserts happened. That seems like so long to you, but for me that whole ordeal with Centipeedle feels like it was yesterday. Your whole life is just a blip on my timeline."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Steven, I love you so much that I can't express it. It may have been brief, but it's been such a wonderful time."

"Why are you talking like it's over?" Steven stood up and moved next to her, but Pearl walked away.

"I am 9,161 years old, Steven. In all that time, I've gone through so much. But through most of it, I had her…"

As if for dramatic convenience, the sunny weather changed to an overcast sky with the smell of rain in the air. Even with that, Steven was more focused on her words.

"Pearl… It'll be okay. Mom told me she doesn't know everything either."

The slender gem gave a short, harsh laugh at that. "Words straight from her mouth. She made it no secret to me that she felt in over her head, that she couldn't wait for the war to be over. And that… No matter what we'd be together."

Steven felt a literal tug at his heartstrings as rain began to pour from the darkening clouds. "What am I supposed to do now? Homeworld's finally decided to finish what Rose started and now I'm in a hopeless situation."

"It's not hopeless for us!" assured Steven, grabbing her by the hand and turning her towards him. "We've got more gems, we've got new powers, new gadgets, and we've got each other!"

Pearl stared at him for a moment before smiling sadly. "Yes, _you _do. You've come so incredibly far in such a short amount of time. You and that boy who thought ice cream fueled his powers might as well be two different people. Garnet and Amethyst are stronger, too. Peridot, Lapis, Bismuth, Adamite, Cinnabar, Topaz and now even Greg have improved themselves. And then there's me… An old relic with a sword, ballet and too many memories to go through."

Droplets began to gently fall from the sky as the wind turned chilly. While Steven was thankfully given an umbrella out of thin air, Pearl remained in the rain as she thought back to the very beginning.

"I was given to a morganite, a low-level commander for Homeworld's troops. She had just lead a successful campaign against some planet that was giving Blue Diamond some trouble and thus got a handful of medals along with a token of the Diamond Authority's appreciation: me. From then on, I was that gem's personal assistant and source of entertainment. Singing, dancing, gymnastics, juggling, and even merely laughing at all of her jokes."

"T-That's it?"

"Oh, in public, that was it. Once she returned to her cache for the day, though, that's when she had me do other things. Not even a week after I was given to her, she ordered me to change my clothing once we were alone."

And then, in order to demonstrate, a duplicate of Pearl showed up. This copy wore only a pale pink leotard over her body and immediately curtsied to Steven.

"Um… H-hi?"

"Greetings, master. Please allow me to entertain you after your long day serving our glorious Homeworld," replied the clone, her eyes shut, and her hands clasped together. Before Steven could make any sort of reply, Pearl grabbed her own double by the neck.

"P-Pearl?" choked Steven as he almost felt his own airway being cut off. While his neck was fine, the sheer amount of anger he felt rippling off his makeshift mother was unlike anything her ever felt.

"This is how I was for _over 3,000 years_…" snarled Pearl, tightening her grip until her double was gasping for breath. "I was this pathetic, whimpering slave… Made to be that clod's _shiny toy_. If I ever see her again…"

An axe conveniently appeared next to her. She picked up the medieval weapon and quickly started letting out her anger and swinging the weapon straight at her doppelganger. When she raised the blade, it was covered in motes of white dust that started leaking out of the clone's body while she screamed in horror.

"P-P-P-Pearl?!" gaped Steven, his stomach churning and breaking out into a cold sweat. The fact that she landed that axe at the clone's naval was only making his anxiety worse.

"And that whole time, I never complained. My whole world was to serve that one miserable gem. She would literally cart me around to work and show me off like I was some accessory!"

With a bloodthirsty scream, she swung the axe down again. This time she cut one of the imposter's arms clean off save for another smattering of dust.

"And this is what they still do!" she raged, "Treating thousands of them as just tools and property. Even the _Diamonds _and their personal pearls…"

Another shout and swing of the axe. The fake pearl now had no arms but did have another solid minute of screaming her head off.

"And that's when your mother found me… In the middle of dancing for Morganite when she came in, proclaiming that the Earth was now under protection. I ducked for cover while the brave and glorious commander that was my owner ran for the nearest warp pad. And since I wasn't ordered to follow her, I just stayed put."

With one final, silent swing she decapitated her double. The whole thing soon crumbled into dust that blew away in the wind around them. Steven was very grateful that Pearl's anger started to diminish, but he could already feel it was being replaced by something else.

"I remember how she brought me back to the temple, then just a little cave. For days I could not even speak since my gem wasn't around, but all she did talk and laugh and tell stories about this odd little planet she was fighting for. One day, I finally spoke up and said I wanted to see what she was doing while I stayed in that cave every day."

Another duplicate of Pearl arrived, this one wearing a much more modest sheer blue outfit while practicing a kata. While her first few movements were clumsy and unsure, she was handling the weapon with finesse by the end and finished it by cleanly slicing a nearby chimney in half with a single swing.

"Then that entire war happened, and I lived for her. I did it because I wanted to fight for this planet, I wanted to have a future here with her and I relished every day we would both come back to temple alive. You… don't need to see the extent of that." Both the real Pearl and her double blushed bright blue at that thought, but soon moved on as a massive light began filling the sky. Steven's eyes widened in fear as he saw three blinding stars come into view and soon an enormous wave of light swept over the land. He brought up a bubble around himself as it swept over the entire city, the earth shaking as it came.

When the light and noise finally cleared, they were in a scene straight out of a nightmare. The buildings were all reduced to rubble save for the one they were on. Everything was bathed in a ominous red glow as even the wind seemed to die in the light's all-consuming path.

"P-Pearl… W-was that…?"

"The Corrupting Light, yes. The one that the Diamonds sent to finish off the rebellion after Pink was shattered. I couldn't close my eyes for months without seeing it again. Rose… was even worse off. She would just wander into her room at random and one day I followed her in to try and comfort her. I watched her completely fall apart. Screaming, crying, ripping her own hair out and swearing the other Diamonds would pay for what they did. To this day that is most horrifying thing I've ever seen."

Finally, the memories became too much for her. She fell to her knees and blankly stared at the wreckage surrounding her. Steven tried to say something, anything, that would comfort her but her could not. He was too busy trying to keep his mind intact from the complete sense of despair threatening to shut down his entire system. With Garnet he felt turmoil and pain about how she failed in her mission. With Amethyst he felt crushing anxiety and fear that everything she loved would die. Now he felt them combine into absolute dread and hopelessness that made him want to turn himself in at that trial so none of this would have ever happened.

The dam finally broke and tears began to flow from her face. "Everything I worked for with your mother. Everything I wanted you to have as an adult. Homeworld will destroy it all and without her we can't stop it. Steven, I'm sorry but I'm not strong enough."

**And so now there's a lot on the table this time. The Crystal Gems versus a small army planning on running out the clock while Steven tries to get to the center of Pearl's mental block. Find out the exciting resolution... whenever I finish writing it!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	46. Independence Day

**Welcome back, everyone! I know it hasn't been long, but boy oh boy am I excited for this one! Before the chapter, though, one quick question: What do you all think of the music recommendations I put in these select scenes? With that asked, onto the gloriousness!**

The halfway point of White Diamond's deadline was fast approaching. The tension in the home of the Crystal Gems was stifling as over thirty people milled about within the confines of the beach house's force field. Even Onion, for all his recklessness, knew to stay put until the situation blew over. Out of all of them, however, Greg was taking it the hardest as he watched Steven and Pearl remain unconscious. The sight of Pearl's arms literally fading into nothingness only made the situation worse.

His funk was broken, though, when he heard an odd clang come from outside.

"Uh, Greg?" asked Sadie, "Any ideas what that was?"

"Super big piece of hail?" shrugged the father, but another clang got his attention before anyone could roll their eyes at his humor.

Being the only one there with any proper weapon, though the father did start thinking of anything the girl could use as a spear in case he needed backup, he went outside to check on it. What he found a very angry ruby sliding down from the top of the force field alongside another one that was angrily yelling about the "stupid bubble" stopping her.

"Please be a coincidence…" muttered Greg, hoping somewhere that this was just two stragglers who got lost from the main force. Instead, he watched half a dozen more small red gems appear in a flash of light and crash into the bubble like bugs crashing into a windshield.

"Oh, great…" he deadpanned in a rare moment of sarcasm. He brought out one of his blasters as the small horde of rubies started banging on the force field. He aimed right for one of the visible gemstones and fires, but instead the shot just rebounds off the bubble and only succeeded in nearly blinding himself.

"You okay out there, big guy?" asked Barb from the main room.

"Someone splash Pearl and Steven with some water! We need backup ASAP!"

* * *

Outside the beach house, the battle was not going so well. The Crystal Gems were doing their absolute best at fending off the goons that Homeworld just kept throwing at them. Almost fifteen straight minutes of fighting later, though, and it seems that Silver Agate was not kidding about just how many gems wanted to join in on a suicide mission. They must have bubbled over fifty gems at this point, but what they were really focused on was finding some way out of this situation. Aside from several new additions to the temple's Burning Room along with several craters and scorch marks added to the battlefield, the only thing that seemed to be changed was the rebels getting more and more exhausted.

And yet, as she felt the halfway point to White Diamond's ultimatum come and go, Garnet refused to back down still. Her visor was cracked from a sucker punch that slipped through her guard and her hands ached from being curled into fists for so long, but she would sooner join Rose's fate than abandon the Earth.

The others were in even worse shape but no less defiant. Bismuth's hands were numb from all the literal hammering she had been doing, Peridot's trusty trash can lid has several dents in it, Lapis had several holes in her dress and even Adamite was beginning to pant from the exertion. They knew their options were limited both by the absence of Steven and Pearl, but that there was no way for any of them to fuse into something strong enough to repel the invaders.

They were soon beseeched by yet another wave from all sides as almost twenty enraged gems charged in from all sides. Topaz was met with two bitter jaspers who tried to grapple her into submission but splitting up kept her able to fight. Peridot was being chased after by four tenacious rubies who were repelled only thanks to her lid and the timely intervention of one of her friends. Cinnabar was also far less confident than normal as an agate, this one blue like the one on the Human Zoo, came after her with the intention of making her model extinct.

All the while, however, someone else was observing the fight. True to her word, White Diamond was keeping her eyes glued to the sight before her. The bonus to her was the sheer entertainment factor of it all. She felt a fantastic sense of catharsis seeing the dreaded Crystal Gems without their leader, against a horde of enemies that outnumber them over a hundred to one and she would finally see the Earth destroyed for all its trouble.

With the time halfway gone, though, she decided to amuse herself even more. Why not pile on the mental anguish to really set the mood?

She activated the same giant holo-screen as before and laughed at the Crystal Gems. "Goodness, you are a persistent bunch. I didn't think you'd have any will to go on by now."

"Oh will you shut up?!" growled Amethyst, "My legs are killing me enough without you yapping!"

"Oh dear, well I'm so _dreadfully _sorry that whatever mutation gave you that speed of yours has drawbacks. May I suggest having your gemstone cracked to remedy that?"

"Why did I ever want to work for her again?" moaned Adamite as she summoned more stones to fight off two incoming amethysts.

"Naiveté," said Garnet, "Trust me, we've all been there."

"Now, now," chastised White, "You all have plenty of time to regret your poor decisions in your final moments which, going by this battle, should happen any moment."

"As if you'd let us go even if, and that's a giant if, we ever wanted to work for Homeworld," scoffed Bismuth while also keeping a jasper in a chokehold.

"True, your crimes can never go unpunished, but at least then there would be some inner peace knowing that you renounced your evil ways at some point."

Lapis, having been completely silent for most of the fight, then did the last thing any of them expected; she laughed. A small chuckle that soon grew into her falling on the ground with tears in her eyes as if she heard the funniest joke in the world. All of the other Crystal Gems, the Homeworld gems attacking them and White herself were dumbstruck. Once she could finally breathe again, she looked up at the confused face of White Diamond and spoke up.

"You really don't understand us at all. For some grand leader of the 'greatest force in the universe' or whatever garbage you call yourself, you're really stupid."

All of the Homeworld forces rushed straight at her, but all she did was reveal her wings and fly above them as she kept talking.

"Here's a bright idea for you: we don't like you. We don't need you. We don't want anything to do with you now and for the rest of our lives. You wanna know why? Because you all _suck_."

"You _dare _mock me?!" roared White, "Do you have any idea who you're addressing?!"

"Yep. A loud, whiny, petulant, selfish _child _who has way too much power on her hands and has somehow convinced trillions of other gems that she's the single greatest thing in the universe. What do you think?"

The outcry from the gems below was even louder, but all Lapis heard was the other Crystal Gems cheering her on. The only exception was Adamite, keeping her mouth shut and trying to figure out why her cheeks were heating up.

"So, clod, get this through your thick head," finished Lapis, "We don't care about you, the other Diamonds, your precious empire or how you can't let things go. You want my advice for what to do about Pink Diamond? About how awful and tragic and sad it is that there's one less planet-conquering clod out there who sees living things as disposable? _Get. Over. It._"

The video screen shut off instantly. Lapis, realizing she was halfway up to the roof of the dome, flew back down into the fray. With that distraction over, the Crystal Gems had 26 minutes now to find a way out of this mess.

* * *

While all of that chaos was going on in reality, Steven was still trying to get Pearl to see reason. Although the world was not threatening to collapse around him like the last two times, something else was. He could feel a chilling despair enter his veins that made him want to lie down and accept the forgone conclusion that the Earth was doomed.

Meanwhile, Pearl was still on her knees as the once-pristine world she spent cleaning and sprucing up was now a red-tinted hellscape with everything except the lone building they were on reduced to wreckage. All of her will was gone. Millennia of standing in the face of adversity meant nothing now when she did not even have the strength to stand. At this rate she and Steven would both just fade away into nothingness and she did not even care.

"P-Pearl…" whispered Steven, his own voice hoarse and his words sluggish, "W-We can't give up… We have so much to live for…"

The gem did not answer. Steven could actually feel the energy leaving him now, but he still urged himself to talk.

"I love you, Pearl. You may not be Rose, but you've been a mom to me this whole time. With Amethyst as my big sister, Garnet as the awesome aunt and you, we've been a family for too long. We were all the Crystal Gems had…"

As he spoke, he felt something stirring in him. It was faint, but it still meant he was getting somewhere. He continued as he tried to get his legs to work.

"And now we've got Peri, Lapis, Bismuth, Topaz, Adamite, Cinnabar, Rutile, Padparadscha, Rhodonite and Fluorite. Heck, even Dad and Connie are Crystal Gems now!"

He stood up as a sudden jolt of electricity woke up his senses. His words were working for him, but Pearl remained as downcast as ever. The boy was not deterred as he took a few steps towards her.

"I… I don't know what the first gem war was like. Really, I don't want to know at this point but I'm still willing to protect the Earth! I can't do that without you, Pearl! Who will teach me awesome spear techniques and tell me stories about all the cool tactics that we can use to win?"

Pearl finally lifted her head, but her gaze was still depressed. "Steven, I'm the weak link these days."

"No, you're not! You're smart, fast, cool and super prepared for everything! We'll always need someone like that!"

"I needed to stand by Rose for all of that. I was a mess for so long. Heck, I still am most of the time!"

"That's not true and you know it!"

"Yes. It. Is!" she yelled, him flinching as a new wave of pain washed over him, "I'm the one who almost got you blown up with a spaceship just because of my nostalgia! I'm the one who completely flipped out over a stupid scabbard! I'm the one who made Connie suicidal when training her! I'm the one responsible for that entire Sardonyx problem! It was my idea to _kidnap _you as a baby! All of that because I was too weak to deal with the world…"

Every word drilled into Steven's heart like a bullet. It was not just that Pearl hated herself, she legitimately thought the Crystal Gems would be better off without her. Before he could fall apart again, though, Steven got an idea.

"Pearl, you're wrong and I can prove it."

He then took a few steps off the side of the building and let gravity do the rest. As he tumbled through the air, he felt a sudden surge of energy go through his heart. And that meant…

"STEVEN!" shouted Pearl as she leapt after him. All the doubt in her was gone, replaced by the burning desire to save her son. Rationally she should have known that Steven could easily save himself, but logic did not matter here. All she knew was that her boy was in trouble.

To make sure that she got the point, though, Steven had another idea. Since Pearl's mental world seemed design to try and help him at every opportunity, he willed it to make the fall even worse. Instead of fifty feet up, the ground seemed to be miles away. He willed himself to go faster and faster, a sonic cone forming around him as his falling body somehow gained more velocity. And yet Pearl was not only keeping up with him, but she was slowly gaining.

Steven still was not satisfied, though. He made it so the building would sprout brick walls in his wake to slow her down. She plowed through them with her fists like they did not even exist. He changed the direction so that now he was being pulled into outer space, but Pearl literally started flying after him. He had several dozens Homeworld gems appear to stop her, but all Pearl did was smash through them with her bare hands. With each new gem that blocked her, her resolve and will only grew. Steven could literally feel his heart swell as she made one final push for him as a final obstacle appeared – a copy of White Diamond herself that grabbed hold of Steven.

Pearl stared up at the colossal figure and the boy now in her grasp. A pristine white copy of Rose's sword appeared in her right hand and the world itself shook as she screamed in righteous anger.

"LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!"

With only one swing of the blade she made the queen scream in agony as the hand holding Steven was lopped clean off. She also somehow moved up right to White's face in a nanosecond. As the diamond tried to glare at her through the pain, Pearl raised her sword to the sky and it began glowing with a dazzling light that soon changed color from white to pink.

"This is for Rose Quartz!" she declared as she slashed White right between the eyes and forced another scream for her. Then the sword's light changed to blue as she reappeared behind the colossus.

"This is for all my fallen comrades!" she thrust the shining blade, now several times larger than its wielder, straight into the diamond's back and out through the other side. White's cries were loud enough to cause earthquakes, but Steven was mesmerized as Pearl's sword shrank and changed to silver.

"This is for the countless gems you've oppressed!" One clean swing of the blade and White tumbled as her feet were gone. Now desperately trying to stand, the diamond used her only remaining limb to send a punch at Pearl but the gem blocked it with no effort. As she did, the sword changed to a violent crimson as it literally sucked all the red from the world around it in to the metal to make it glow as bright as an actual sun.

"And this is for _me._ A servant turned savior. A victim who stands victorious over your tyranny! I AM THE RENEGADE PEARL! GUARDIAN OF EARTH! FRIEND TO ALL OF MANKIND! AND ONE DAY YOU WILL FACE MY WRATH FOR YOUR CRIMES, DIAMOND!"

With one final thrust she released all the energy stored in her burning blade with one final stroke and reduced the already crippled monarch to ashes. With her foe utterly destroyed she turned to find Steven's eyes turned into stars.

"That was the most epic thing I've ever seen!" he cheered as he ran up and hugged her. It took Pearl a moment to hug him back, but once she did the world around him started to return to normal. The pristine city rebuilt itself, the ground turned from wasteland to verdant plains and a radiant sun returned to the sky above them.

"Feeling better?" asked Steven coyly.

"Yes, but I don't appreciate that little stunt of yours." chastised the gem, more out of habit than anything.

"Sorry, but you needed a wake-up call. I knew the awesome Pearl who saves the world every week was in there somewhere."

"Thanks. I needed some help finding her again."

"Ready to save the world again even if you don't have Mom?"

"I don't need her for this. All I need is my will and a spear."

* * *

Steven woke up to an unusual sight. On the one hand, he saw all of the people he rescued crowded by windows and standing on the porch. On the other he saw a half-dissolved Pearl suddenly be brought back to wholeness as her gem glowed with brilliant white light. Steven ran outside to check on the commotion and saw his dad surrounded by very angry rubies.

"Dad, hold on!" he cried, readying his shield for battle. He leapt out of the force field and stopped a pair of the angry grunts from blindsiding Greg.

"Oh, kid, thank the stars you're here! Is Pearl okay?"

"All better now, but we've got our own problems…" the two readied themselves as the rubies charged all at once. Many of them went for "Rose Quartz" but some stuck to the annoying organic that had been giving them so much trouble for the past five minutes. With Steven's help much better arsenal and experience, though, the father and son soon took down half of the ring. The other half, actually being smart for once, tried to retreat.

"Fall back to the ship! We need to get reinforcements!"

"I don't think so," commanded Pearl from the roof of the beach house. She leaped out of the pink bubble and into the fray where three of the gems came at her. By the time she landed, all three of them were poofed.

"I'll have you know that this beach is private property," she ordered to the remaining four rubies, "Leave now or you'll pay for trespassing."

"Like we're gonna listen to a pearl!" barked one of the rubies as she ran at her with a gauntlet on her wrist. Pearl just twirled her spear and stopped her dead in her tracks before finishing her with a thrust in the back.

"Very well then. I tried to be courteous…" she taunted as the three gems tried to come at her all at once with knives out. With several graceful backflips and leaps, she dodged every swing and stab and capitalized on their sloppy forms. The first was forced to drop her weapon with a clean twist of the wrist and then stabbed through the gut. The second was easily tripped thanks to her poor stance and then poofed from a thrust through the head. The third was casually punted into the air like a football and was speared mid-air by her weapon like a makeshift javelin.

The observing humans cheered at seeing the red nuisances defeated, but they knew it was far from over.

"Man, I've gotta learn all of that?!" balked Greg, "How long did it take you?"

"Oh, nothing major, Greg," kidded the gem, "Just a measly 820 years."

"Terrific…"

"Now then, games aside, how much time is there?"

"Um," answered Steven with his phone, "15 minutes, wait, what?!" Now he suddenly felt nervous.

"Any word from the others?" she asked Greg.

"Nope and I've been getting pretty antsy here. Those rubies just appeared out of the air!"

"Meaning they've probably been summoning more reinforcements this whole time. Steven, stay here."

"Wait, huh? Are you sure?"

"Homeworld might send something that's too much for Greg to handle by himself, no offense."

"None taken!"

"Steven, I'm sure you're more than capable of watching the house."

"But… there's just one of you."

"Oh, that?" she asked curiously, "I might have a way to fix that."

**(Cue Epic Theme Song: Misty Lake from Sonic and the Black Knight)**

Her gem began to glow once again, but soon the light was focused into a beam that shone in front of her. At first she seemed to summoning one of her Holo-Pearls, but instead it became an exact duplicate! Everyone's jaws dropped, but that was not the end as both Pearls repeated the tasks and brought the total number to four copies.

"Thank you very much for the upgrade, by the way," obliged one of the Pearl clones.

"It will make cleaning so much easier!" giddily said another one.

"And now I can finally catch Amethyst raiding the fridge!" planned yet another one.

"Everyone focus!" commanded the last one as they all drew spears, "We've got a battle to win! Charge!"

The clones all ran headfirst into town where they quickly drew the attention of the remaining Homeworld gems.

"Hey, look at that! That must be Rose Quartz's renegade pearl!" called one of the amethysts in the area.

"I thought there was only one?" wondered a jasper.

"Who cares?! She's just some stupid servant!" answered a carnelian, "Let's just smash her to bits!"

"Trust me," spoke all of them in unison, "I'm far more than meets the eye!" The four all charged in, still outnumbered two to one, but far more than up to the challenge. With her confidence restored and her mind focused the Pearls managed to overwhelm the group but more soon came running from the commotion.

As the Pearl duplicates grouped together as a small ring of gems came around them, they had an idea. Just before the enemies all closed in, two of them leapt straight into the air with a third on their shoulders. Once the pair hit their maximum height, the third Pearl leapt off their shoulders and fell straight into the middle of another battle.

"Pearl!"

"You're okay!"

"And so is Steven!" reported the swordswoman as she pointed her spear straight at the confused Silver Agate. "And now that the Crystal Gems are united, we will send all of you miscreants back to your home planet!"

"Hah!" laughed the agate, "You and what army?"

Pearl smirked as she quickly put her new ability to use again. This time she summoned not one, but five more clones to even the numbers.

"Oh, heck yeah!" cheered Bismuth, "You clods are in for it now!"

"N-Nonsense!" rebuffed the agate, "We are still gems specially designed for combat, not some lowly servant who-"

She was cut off by one of the now-six Pearls planting a right hook to the face.

"You _really _not to be stop underestimating me," she warned before following up with a spear jab to the stomach. With their leader occupied and the Crystal Gems getting a second wind, the forces of Homeworld were suddenly on the ropes despite their still greater numbers.

Garnet and Bismuth teamed up to overpower the forces with brute strength, balls of ice and the occasional bad pun that sent several jaspers packing. Amethyst used her super speed to corral any gems trying to make a break for more reinforcements. It got to the point where she created a literal tornado to surround the battlefield, sweeping up any unfortunate soul who came too close.

Peridot ended up helping Adamite by sitting on her shoulder and acting as a second pair of eyes for the earth bender.

"Two clods, 8:00!" Adamite sent several high velocity stones at the unlucky saps from multiple directions.

"Another ruby, 1:00!" The attempted sneak attacker smacked straight into a stone wall hard enough to poof herself.

"Topaz needs help, ASAP!" The former bodyguard were surrounded by five of their own kinds, but thankfully Pearl heard the call and two of her clones rushed into help. Despite being the lightweight of the group, the duo had far superior training as they danced around any strike thrown their way while also helping the fusion get some training tips.

"Keep your legs bent," advised one while blocking an attack, "That way you'll always be ready to move."

"Aim low on opponents like these," instructed the other while kicking an enemy topaz hard enough to topple her, "They tend to have higher centers of gravity."

"Thanks!" appreciated the fusion, suddenly holding her own much easier as the improved stance helped her throw her weight around better and knock the wind out of an oncoming amethyst in one blow.

The unlikely duo of Lapis and Cinnabar were quite literally proving that opposites attract. While they could not use their respective elements to the fullest, they still found ways to empower themselves and each other. Lapis used her wings like a second set of fists and proved to pack quite a punch. Cinnabar lit all four of her limbs on fire and found that it gave her a surprising edge in combat by making her punches and kicks far stronger. The Homeworld gems were not sure which one was more shocking – two nearly extinct gems standing before them or the two actually beating them in close combat.

In the midst of all these scattered battles, though, was Pearl and Silver Agate. The frontline commander had summoned her weapon, a pair of tomahawks, and charged in as Pearl stood poised with her spear. She blocked the first several swings, impressed by the power behind them, before leaping to the side. The larger gem charged after her and managed to cleave into some rock but missed Pearl entirely.

"Not bad," admitted the rebel, "But I have a gut feeling you're more suited to commanding than combat."

"Silence!" ordered Silver as she threw her weapon straight at Pearl. While a tad surprised, the fencer actually caught the weapon by the handle and merely threw it aside before making a flying lunge for her foe. Silver summoned another weapon and blocked the assault but was then distracted by a kick hitting her in the side.

"It's terrible decorum to throw your weapon, you know," admonished a second Pearl, "They must have given you minimal weapons skills."

Silver refused to be intimidated and charged at both of her targets, but all she got was both of them grabbing her by the arms and flipping her over hard enough to leave cracks in the Earth. She got up in time to avoid a third Pearl flying in from nowhere and slamming into her. Now seeing three opponents, Silver screamed in frustration and started swinging like mad. Unfortunately for her that made it even easier for the triplets to predict her movements and deliver three hits for every one of hers.

"ENOUGH!" she roared, "I will not be beaten by some abomination of a pearl who thinks having more of her will-"

She was interrupted this time by a jasper flying into her from behind and bowling her over courtesy of two more Pearls.

"And one final lesson: Stop monologuing during a fight. It never ends well."

That Pearl, however, let her own guard down and an enemy amethyst took advantage to it. She landed a clean hit to her back with her club and sent the clone sprawling.

"Ha! Finally got you!"

"Congratulations…" she said sarcastically, "You still have the rest."

The gem did poof, but there was no stone left behind. She just disappeared in a puff of smoke as if she never existed. To really rub in how ineffective that was, one of the other Pearls easily summoned up a replacement five seconds later.

"I'd love to continue this sparring practice, but I'm afraid your leader has me on a time limit. I have a massive time bomb to deal so now I'll stop holding back."

Each of the six clones focused and summoned a clone of her own. Pearl finally revealed her maximum limit of twelve much to the shock of the Homeworld gems and to the delight of the Crystal Gems.

"Ladies," spoke one of them, "Ready your spears."

They all pointed their spears at the myriad of enemies around them while the other Crystal Gems all fled behind a nearby hill.

"OPEN FIRE!"

All of them began sending energy blasts from their weapons and nailing many of the unlucky Homeworld gems. Many tried to run, but that only made them easier targets as she spared none of the invaders. The force of roughly forty remaining gems turned to zero in the blink of an eye with only Silver Agate left to watch.

"I-Inconceivable…" she muttered while barely hanging on to her weapons, "H-How did you-?"

"Sorry, Crystal Gem secret," taunted the lead Pearl as she and her eleven copies all charged straight at her in a line. One by one they sent a decisive slash straight at the cowering commander and once they had all finished their strikes, she was poofed at last.

The other Crystal Gems were all ecstatic winning the battle, but now had another problem to deal with.

"Pearl, we have ten minutes left!" alerted Peridot, "We might be able to do something if we commandeer their ships but that may take more fighting if any guards are stationed…"

"Hm, a possibility," considered the gem as she dispelled all of her clones, "But I'm afraid time is of the essence."

"I've been thinking about this," added Garnet, "The one thing we haven't tried is going after the source of this force field."

Pearl looked up and saw the ring of devices that were still projecting the energy dome. They looked like nine ordinary spheres about the size of cars, but what really got the gem's attention was their position inside the dome.

"Garnet, that's it! Amethyst, get ready to form Opal!"

"Got it!"

The two gems wasted no time getting into position and timing their dances perfectly. With only nine minutes left, Opal sprang to life and wasted no time putting her newest power to the test as she summoned a dozen copies of herself.

"I suggest we all head back to the house," added Garnet before bidding the fusions a thumbs-up. While the rest of the Crystal Gems fled to the house, happy to see Steven and Greg still safe, the Opals got into position. They all ran in opposite directions heading straight for the edges of the dome. Once they reached their positions, all of them drew their bows and the rest of the team watched as one of the massive archers stood in the ocean and prepared to fire.

"Isn't this awesome, Garnet?!" giddily asked Steven.

"It is… But the collateral from this is gonna be a lot to fix."

"Pssh, since when has that ever stopped us?" asked Bismuth.

"NOW!" chanted all of the Opal clones as they let their light arrows fly. Like a series of comets, they rushed straight at the source of the dome and collided in a massive illuminating explosion. When the group was finally able to see again, they saw the ring of devices was annihilated by the blast and the dome began to fade. Now that the threat was done, they immediately started cheering and celebrating as all of the humans poured of the beach house.

"You guys all did it!" thanked Sadie as she and her mother hugged Steven and Greg respectively, "The whole town owes you our hides!"

"Man, Greg, I gotta hand it to you," complimented Barb, "I have a pretty excellent daughter, but your boy is something else!"

"Aw, shucks, he's just a good kid…" he shook off but Garnet was behind him with a hand on his shoulders.

"A good kid who can thank his heroic father to teaching him right from wrong. Thank you, Greg. You risked a lot for all of us."

"Enough sappiness!" ordered Cinnabar, "Let's party with fireworks!"

"Ahem," said Opal as she stood above her, both sets of arms crossed and giving her best stern parent face.

"Do you honestly think that's a good idea?"

"M-Maybe we should save that for later…"

"Well," said Adamite, "Getting Cinnabar to back down. That's the most amazing power you've displayed so far."

As the rest of the Crystal Gems and the people of Beach City laughed at that, there was one person who was anything but cheerful. True to her word White Diamond had watched the entire fight right up until the ring containing her camera was destroyed. Now she stood in her palace, immensely thankful that Yellow and Blue were not watching, and trying to keep her composure together. While her pearl may not have moved and directly under her diamond's control, even she was unnerved by the raw anger that seemed to be coming off her master.

"Pearl…" the monarch whispered.

"Y-Yes, my Diamond?"

"Have all the troops that were warping to Earth recalled immediately and have all record of this operation struck from our databanks."

"At once!"

As her servant left, the monarch finally lost control. She let out a massive bellowing scream that shook her entire palace to its foundation and made all of the gems in a twenty-mile radius want to lie down and die. Her entire body blazed with white-hot energy bright enough to resemble an actual star as she let out all her rage. Once she finally calmed down enough to think coherently again, she got to work on her next plan.

"_Rose Quartz," _she thought sharply, _"I will have you destroyed molecule by molecule even if it takes every gem I have. I will have you destroyed."_

**So, three cheers for Pearl and her totally-not shadow clones! Another bright day for the Crystal Gems, but what happens next? White Diamond is many things and forgiving is the least of them! Tune in next time to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	47. This Means War

**Before we get started this time, I wanted to say something to all you readers out there. I understand that right now there is a lot of panic and discontent out there thanks to a certain bug. I was actually supposed to be back in class this week, but the recent issues with the bug have made them cancel my college's classes for the week and will move them online for the following weeks. I've heard stories of people panicking and treating this like an apocalypse, but I want to encourage all of you out there. If Steven Universe has shown me anything, it's that humans can be pretty wonderful and that if we remain optimistic we can come out better. Fear and force cannot compare to the power that kindness, empathy and virtue. I hope everyone out there makes it through this better and here's to being in a better future.**

**And now, the new chapter...**

With the dome destroyed and Silver Agate being bubbled and sent to the temple, it was easy pickings to fix the rest of the town. The stragglers were suddenly much less eager to fight seeing their enemy commander defeated and an already powerful fusion split into twelve and then annihilate their greatest weapon in no time at all. Some actually laid down and surrendered while others tried hightailing it back to the ships, but most were met by Pearl and her clones. As soon as they defused from Opal, they planned to ambush any returning troops and check for any last abducted people.

When the sun finally rose after the longest night in Beach City's history, every single person was accounted for after Amethyst did a head count of some of the surrounding suburbs. She returned with Connie actually riding on her back.

"Hey everybody!" called the makeshift taxi, "Look who I found!"

Steven quickly saw his best friend and ran up to her. He threw a hug around her but was taken aback when he felt something cold on his shoulder.

"Connie? What's up with your-"

"Hand?" she finished, showing off her green crystal appendage. "Yeah… That kinda just happened a few hours ago. I tried calling you about it but none of my calls got through."

"That's probably thanks to the death bubble White Diamond put Beach City under."

She blinked a few times before responding. "You know, that doesn't even faze me anymore. Plus, I'm dead tired and my parents are waiting for me back at my aunt's place where we were staying. You all good here?"

"Should be. All I really want now is some sleep."

"Ditto. I'm amazed I didn't crash coming here on a two-hundred mile an hour piggyback ride."

As both friends left, they felt a sense of calm overtake them. Even with some rather extensive property damage to clean up, the day was saved. On top of that, between Pearl's new cloning ability, the powered armor that Greg was already putting to good use and the odd new power Connie possessed that they had all become stronger. It made the boy's inevitable fall into slumber even easier as he was asleep halfway into his walk back home. One of the Pearls naturally took him home and tucked him to get a much-deserved rest while Beach City began recovering.

* * *

Yellow and Blue Diamond were many things. Both were matriarchs to the Gem Empire and have spent tens of millennia building it into the multi-galaxy spanning masterpiece that it is today. While Yellow was the primary commanding officer for their empire's extensive military, she was still responsible for several internal affairs such as training programs and handling martial law. Meanwhile Blue was in charge of most of the domestic affairs such as the architecture, resource management and naturally keeping their culture as pristine as possible. Even still, she did make regular rounds to check up on colonies and keep the general well-being of her people up. These two, while opposites in many categories, were the chief operators of their empire and the hands that ran everything.

Today, though, they had plans to check in on White's plan to finally eliminate the rebellion of Rose Quartz. Shockingly enough, their leader was incredibly quiet when they arrived and merely instructed them to watch a recording of the entire invasion effort. Several hours later, the two matriarchs were grateful they were in complete privacy as their reactions were less than dignified.

"WHAT IN NAME OF THE COSMOS WAS THAT?!" erupted Yellow, more infuriated than she had been in years, "Those clods, including two organics, managed to fight off an invading force that outnumbered them more than _twenty to one_! And then a pearl, Rose Quartz's personal pearl, spontaneously arrives with the ability to duplicate herself and drives off the entire force with an illegitimate fusion?! This is a mockery! This is a farce! This is-"

"-Quite enough, Yellow," said Blue, "I don't understand any of this either, but that doesn't change what happened."

White, in a telling change of pace, merely listened while the most emotional of them spoke rationally. "We clearly have underestimated these Crystal Gems over and over again and every time we do, they have gained something from it. Stolen technology, new members, a growing number of hostages to use against us and now they've made a sham out of our forces. Time and again, they've been growing stronger and more invigorated by their successes."

"I-I know that!" shouted Yellow, "But how?! They are a speck on the face of a hideous ball of water that somehow keep doing this! I've had enough, I'm going to Earth personally to shatter that insidious quartz myself! I will-"

"Be silent…" urged White, finally making herself known, "…And curb your temper. Emotionally snapping won't get you anywhere."

"What we need to do now is figure out our next move," she continued, "And I have something that can eliminate Rose Quartz and her beloved planet Earth in one move."

"Wait a moment… You don't mean…" spoke Yellow.

"Indeed, a little project that _someone _here forgot to check up on some time ago – The Cluster."

"The what?" asked Blue, feeling lost already. She also felt rather nervous given that Yellow went from angry to very embarrassed at the name of it.

"Yes, a little superweapon that a certain other Diamond was supposed to be overseeing but nothing has come of it so far. Can't imagine why…"

White then pulled up a diagram showing the project itself – an absolutely colossal sphere made of millions of gem shards left over from the original conflict with Rose that was planted roughly two hundred years ago. While Yellow looked at it curiously, Blue had a very different reaction.

"Is that… thing made of gem shards?"

"Yes," replied Yellow, "Why do you ask? You can obviously see it for yourself."

"I… I never knew about something like this. How…"

"Spit it out already, Blue!"

"How could we have done this?!" she yelled, even getting White's attention, "According to this data, there's no telling where the shards came from aside from this planet! Are you telling me you both were making a superweapon out of the remnants of our own loyal soldiers?!"

"Blue, it was out of necessity," assured White, "I mean, what were we going to do? Draft thousands of our _active_ troops into becoming a prototype for a world-shattering weapon? That's nonsense! Think of the losses our gem production and military that would create!"

"That's not the problem! These gems were heroes! They fought Rose and her rebellion until the very end and lost their lives in the process and how did we repay them?! Desecrating their memories by keeping them there to be used as a tool!"

"Blue, you need to calm down," said Yellow, "I understand you're upset-"

"Preposterous! _You _were the one monitoring this abomination! You clearly knew about it and went along with it out of your hatred for Earth! I want Rose and her infernal planet destroyed just as much as you, but did it necessitate this?! This sacrifice of so many innocents spending millennia trapped in the planet they lost their lives on all for the sake of a weapon?!"

"That's enough!" shouted White, her patience completely gone, "Curb yourself right now or you'll seriously regret it!"

"Oh, shut it! As if you even understand what regret is, you insensitive clod! You already said you don't care about Pink-!"

That was all she got out before White finally let her have it. She sent a beam from her hand straight at Blue. The smaller monarch went from yelling in rage to screaming in agony as she felt her very essence being assaulted. Her eyes were completely dry for a change, but she felt a sense of pain unlike anything from the past few millennia. Yellow shielded her eyes as her sister in arms was engulfed in blinding energy, and not seeing the color drain out of her for a moment, before White finally let up.

"Now then," spoke the grand monarch in a motherly tone, "Are you ready to move on?"

"Y-Yes…" mumbled Blue, "I'm s-sorry, White… I overreacted."

"Excellent response. Now then, the Cluster was projected to emerge some time ago but that Rose Quartz has somehow managed to prevent this. We must find a way to discover her way of accomplishing this and do so discretely. It's obvious that direct confrontation has continuously failed so a more subtle approach is in order. Begin deliberating some ideas and report back to me later. That will be all."

* * *

Back on Earth, the town of Beach City was hard at work being rebuilt. While the massive device responsible for trapping the town was disintegrated by Opal, there was a great deal left to do from the rest of the battles. Along with every single pane of glass for several miles being broken to smithereens thanks to Sugilite, there were buildings, roads and countless other examples of property damage though thankfully injuries to the townspeople were minimal.

The Crystal Gems thought it was only fair that they contribute to the rebuilding efforts as much as possible. At the start of the next day, Amethyst was already making trips to nearby towns for more supplies, Garnet and Bismuth acted as muscle clearing up any debris they came across, Adamite was repairing all of the roads, Peridot was getting the ships relocated to the temple for her to work on later and all the while Pearl and her clones supervised the situation.

As one of the copies checked her clipboard, she spotted a shadow flying overhead. "Lapis!" she called out, "How's Steven doing?"

"He just woke up, actually," she reported, "And seemed really eager to help out."

"Of course he is… All in all, I think he'd be best off just making sure everyone's okay. Did you spot anything else on your flight?"

"Nope. No stray gems, no backup plans and the most exciting thing was Lars showing Topaz what cupcakes are. She seemed kinda lost on the whole eating business."

"Oh dear, I might want to warn her. Amethyst might have taken to it, but it still gives me every wrong feeling to this day."

"Eh, I never thought meep-morps would be my thing, but they worked! Anyway, want me to get Steven?"

"Sure. He spent all of yesterday in bed and I bet he's dying to help out wherever he can."

As Lapis flew off to rouse the boy from over 24 continuous hours of sleep, Pearl analyzed her list and someone else walked up to her.

"Hey Pearl," greeted Connie, holding one hand behind her back oddly, "Can I show you something? It's… weird."

"Oh, trust me, I've been so busy with so much commotion going on recently that nothing could faze me anymore-"

She stopped suddenly when her protégé showed her hand still made out of green crystal. To further prove her point that it was not purely cosmetic, she reached down and picked up a pebble from the road. She crushed it with her fingers with almost no effort.

"I may have accidentally ripped off one of the doors to Mom's car, too. Could you get someone to look at that? I don't think insurance will cover it."

"Uhhhh… I'll get Bismuth on that. You, um, otherwise alright?"

"Yeah. I guess on the bright side I don't need to use Rose's sword anymore since now I can do this." She then pulled a crystalline sword out of thin air just like she did in the fight against the amethysts. Before her mentor could freak out at this, she was saved when Garnet walked over with an uprooted tree slung over her shoulders.

"I found this in the road," she explained, "I'm gonna go replant it before Cinnabar makes it into firewood."

"Oh, yes, good idea!" Pearl yelped, "Why don't I assist you with that?! Connie, we'll talk later, this is urgent Crystal Gem business."

"I guess it is now," shrugged Garnet, "See you later, Connie. Cool sword."

"Thanks. Bye guys!"

While that was going on, Steven was roused from his day-long sleep by Lapis and found himself jogging through town looking to help in any possible way. He found himself merely holding things in place, retrieving items to speed along construction or simply keeping people upbeat with his natural charm. Outside of helping flip over a car with his hands, it was very routine stuff but all of the citizens appreciated his help and his positive attitude nonetheless.

After almost an hour he found himself at It's a Wash where his father was showing off his battle armor to a man Steven never saw before. He seemed perfectly normal with a short head of black hair, being dressed in a simple t-shirt and jean shorts and a laidback demeanor that made him very approachable. Never one to hesitate around strangers, Steven walked up to the adults in the middle of their conversation.

"…Plus, Peridot's looking to make some adjustments," Greg continued, "I honestly just wanted her to add a helmet since one of those guys yanked me around by my hair."

"Fair enough, I suppose," replied the unknown man, "Wouldn't want a mane like that getting ruined."

"Oh, you have no idea how long this has taken. Almost twenty years of no haircuts and more shampoo than you could think and-"

The man stopped him suddenly, though, when he noticed Steven watching them. "Oh, pardon me, Greg, but who is this?"

"Oh, that's just my goofball of a son! What's good, Steven?"

"This is Steven? Steven Universe?"

"Yep, that's me!" replied the boy with a smile, "What's your name?"

"Van Carson," he replied while holding out a hand to shake. As Steven took it and shook back, Van pulled out his cellphone.

"Excuse me, but I need to make a quick call to work."

"Sure, no problem!" assured the boy. The two gave him some space and started chatting amongst themselves until Van hung up the phone and approached them again.

"Sorry for the interruption, but I needed to check in with my job. Now then, Steven, would you mind telling me a few things?"

"What do you need to know? Are you new to Beach City? I know all the best places to go!"

"That's very good to hear, Steven, but my questions are a bit more personal. You see, I'm a representative of the government of the United American States and I've been sent here to ask you about a group called the Crystal Gems and the events of the previous night."

Steven and Greg both went numb in an instant. While Van seemed very casual and polite about it all, the fact that the national government wanted to talk to them was very alarming.

"Um, sir?" piped Greg, "Is Steven in trouble? Am I in trouble for raising him? Is anyone here going to Zone 15?!"

"Trust me, Mr. Universe, that zone is merely a rumor. However, I am not here to discuss hypotheticals. If possible, I would also like to speak with one of the Crystal Gems directly though I understand if you would wish for your affiliates to remain anonymous."

Without another word, Steven rapidly called up Pearl and told her she was needed at the car wash ASAP. The gem soon arrived and the government agent introduced himself the same way to the alien, still as cordial and casual as ever.

"W-WHAT?!" yelped Pearl, "H-H-How do you know about us?! W-Why only now approach us?! A-Are we being sued for property damages?!"

"Is she always this… high-strung?" asked Van curiously, seemingly unfazed by Pearl's behavior.

"Sometimes," answered Steven, "But now she's pretty relaxed unless there's mildew in the kitchen."

"Hm, a tidy housekeeper. I can respect that. Nevertheless, Pearl, I would first like to reassure you that your group is in no danger from us. In fact, everyone on this planet owes your team a debt of gratitude for your commendable efforts. Me included."

That instantly calmed Pearl down, but her curiosity was still very piqued. "W-Well that's very flattering Mr. Carson but-"

"Please, you may call me Van or Agent Van if you must. I won't elaborate, but I'm not fond of my family name."

"Very well then, Agent Van, but how on Earth are you aware of the Crystal Gems? We've done our best to maintain secrecy from human eyes for thousands of years."

"Ah yes, an explanation is in order. Steven, do you have any place in town that you'd recommend for a more comfortable spot for a meeting?"

The boy pointed him towards Fish Stew Pizza and soon the Universe family was driving there in Greg's van while the secret agent followed along in his inconspicuous beige car. Once they arrived at the pizzeria, thankfully untouched by the invasion, Van offered to pay for lunch for the family while they exchanged information.

"Now then, to put you at ease, I'll explain my knowledge of you first. As technology has gotten more advanced and allowed for better data collection, we have noticed several patterns emerge in historical artwork and literature throughout history."

Agent Van then opened up a laptop he brought into the restaurant with them and began typing away on the device until he turned it around and showed it to his three listeners. All of them saw a collection of nearly every form of historical artwork imaginable from ancient pottery, faded hieroglyphics, detailed paintings, a handful of sculptures and more all detailing a full-figured female with enormous hair. Some showed a star pattern on her navel, others had in full color with her hair electrifyingly pink, yet others a glimmering stone on her body, but they were all clearly depictions of Rose Quartz. Scattered among them were less prominent depictions of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl with various features being presented.

"For quite a few years now, we began getting curious about these recurring images. Naturally, this was merely assumed as historical coincidences but the sheer number of examples we found were unprecedented. We soon began looking for something more concrete about this mythical woman, somehow completely unchanged despite living through every society known to mankind. Keep in mind these are only the visual examples. We've collected encyclopedias worth of oral myths and written records cataloging this same woman."

The Universe family were all stunned, but none more so than Pearl. She could hardly believe some random government agent was unraveling thousands of years' worth of Crystal Gem history in a matter of minutes. On the plus side, she did start to remember several adventures of those past eras that made her feel pleasantly nostalgic.

Van then zoomed in on a particular painting showing Rose and the main trio in a boat with Garnet in front upper-cutting a sea creature while Pearl and Amethyst saved a blonde man from drowning.

"This picture proved to be a vital key in our research when we found it in an archive last year. All of the figures matched, and we were even able to quickly ascertain two more people in this photo: Captain William Dewey and famed explorer Buddy Budwick."

"Cool!" cheered Steven, "Nice to see those guys get recognized."

"Yes, we most certainly appreciated their efforts. Given the time period of this painting and Captain Dewey's status as the founder of Beach City, we then focused our efforts on locating any sign of this pink-haired woman or her associates. It turns out that was far easier than we imagined…"

Van then turned the computer back to himself and went through more files until opening up another one and showing them. These ones were full-color photographs of the Crystal Gems out and about the town usually with Steven by their side and Greg in a handful of photos.

"Y-You've been spying on us?!" ousted Greg, feeling completely violated.

"Rest assured, all of these pictures have never been distributed in any public manner. In fact, they are not the only ones we took. With the link to Budwick, we soon found a copy of his journal and began documenting more fascinating phenomena in the locations affiliated with you as well."

A few more clicks and soon the three were presented with a slideshow of almost every location they had visited in the past with Steven even staring at a few places he had never seen before.

"From there, we merely contacted the current mayor and that's how we got the cursory information about your group such as your name, the Crystal Gems. Outside of that and the knowledge of Steven's existence, we've been left to put the pieces together ourselves for the longest time."

"I take it that changed due to recent events?" said Pearl.

"Correct. I'm afraid an entire town being held hostage by some sort of massive bubble is too much for us to ignore. We also picked up other worrying events such as a massive unidentified flying object crash landing onto your shore, but the authorities decided to leave that be for the time. Now, though, whatever conflict you are involved with has escalated to the point where innocent lives are endangered. They decided to send me here today to gain as much intel as possible."

With some clarity now in the air, the group decided to stop to actually get to eating. Steven and Greg split a pizza, Van ordered a small salad for himself and Pearl politely declined while noting that Gems did not need food for survival.

"Now then, with all of that said," spoke the agent once they had all filled their stomachs, "Would you mind answering the questions I have?"

"Sure," responded Greg, "But the answers are gonna be weird."

"Given I'm dealing with alien lifeforms, I should expect something unorthodox. Now first and foremost is where is this pink-haired woman that has appeared so frequently? Our surveillance never once caught her on any image of your group this entire time."

"That…" said Greg morosely, "Is Rose Quartz. She's no longer with us."

"She was the founder and leader of the Crystal Gems," added Pearl.

"And my mother," finished Steven. He gave a brief explanation of how she decided to give birth to him and how he now carries her gemstone. When he lifted his shirt to show the bright pink gem in place of his navel, Van was surprised.

"So, that stone is a component of all gems? I noticed the very large one on Pearl's forehead."

"Yes," said Pearl, "All gems are essentially living holograms with the only physical matter being our gems. They are our cores and the only way to essentially kill a gem is to shatter it. If any other part of our forms are damaged, we receded into our stones to heal and will reform in peak condition with enough time."

"Fascinating," said the agent while taking diligent notes on his computer, "What other properties do gems have?"

Pearl, seeing how earnest his question was, felt more than happy to explain. She elaborated on how gems were created, their physical capabilities and even demonstrated how she could summon her weapon.

"Now, it's also important to know that combat specifications depend on the type of gem," she continued, "For instance, Amethyst has a whip for her weapon, Garnet has her gauntlets and Steven a shield he also inherited from his mother."

"Pardon me," Van said, "But you're telling me that Steven here can do the same?"

"More than that, actually. Steven, would you prefer to demonstrate your powers yourself?"

The boy decided to do just that. He shuffled through all of his weapons and noticed each time Van was getting more surprised. Then he became fully blown away when Steven went outside, jumped straight up out of view of the restaurant window and then floated back down. He almost fainted when Steven then noticed a nearby light post that was knocked over and placed it upright with his bare hands. When the boy final came back in and took a sip of his drink, the agent seemed about ready to faint.

"Y-You… are half-gem? And that means you can do… all of that?"

"Yep! Plus, I can heal people with my spit or tears and shapeshift, but I don't like using that too much. Bad memories."

"He has a lot of unique properties due to being half human," elaborated Pearl, "He's become quite a capable fighter, but he's also far less experienced and has a weakness for his G.U.Y.S. action figures."

"I see…" said Van while regaining his composure, "I never imagined such a friendly child like you could do anything like that."

"Trust me, sir, he's still a lover," added Greg, "If anything, he'd much rather be friends with everyone instead of beating them around."

"Yeah, it's really sad," lamented Steven, "I keep trying to just talk things over with them, but they won't listen. The Diamonds just keep attacking no matter what I say!"

While Van did feel his heart warm hearing how nonviolent Steven was, he looked confused about the new term. "The Diamonds?"

"Allow me to explain," offered Pearl. From there she launched on another lengthy tangent on the Crystal Gems' battle with the forces of Homeworld from their inception to their newest clash involving the massive death dome. While Van was still keeping composed, deep down he felt his nerves being strained.

"So, if I followed all of this correctly, the Crystal Gems are a rebellious force against an imperialistic empire of megalomaniacal alien super soldiers that have conquered thousands of planets in the past?"

"Millions, more accurately, but yes."

"And Rose Quartz effectively murdered one of their leaders in an effort to free Earth, which while effective, also meant your force of hundreds was reduced down to the main three we have seen so far."

"Actually, no. Amethyst only joined after the Gem War was finished."

"Fair enough, but now after thousands of years, Homeworld has essentially decided to finish you off out of grudge for this Pink Diamond and they don't care about any organic life."

"Pretty much," agreed Greg, "And trust me, they're a tough bunch. Take it from someone who only just started this job, it's really something else."

"You… fought these gems?"

"In a super-awesome suit of armor that Peri and Bismuth made for him!" exclaimed Steven, "It has laser blasters and light swords and he looks awesome and he stopped a bunch of rubies from taking our house all by himself."

"Aw, sport, stop it. You're overexaggerating…"

"So, it seems you all are quite extraordinary," said Van, "I believe this is more than enough for my superiors to be satisfied although there might be a follow-up in the future."

"Will we see you again?" asked Steven.

"More than likely. I must admit that it would give me an easy excuse to eat here again. Thank you for the recommendation, Steven."

"You're welcome!"

"Agent Van," said Pearl, "Before you go, there is one thing I request you tell the higher-ups."

"And what would that be?"

"Tell them to stay as uninvolved as possible."

"What?!"

"While we understand you monitoring us and would appreciate potential assistance with reconstruction in the future, you need to understand that Homeworld is far more than any military force on this planet can handle."

"I don't mean to offend, but don't you think you are being a tad too… presumptuous?"

Rather than respond, Pearl closed her eyes and made two copies of herself. While Van was already stunned by this display, she was not done yet. All three pulled out spears and proceeded to throw them hundreds of feet into the air. Then the trio leapt into the air and soared right up to their weapons before catapulting themselves down onto the beach hard enough to make a crater and kick up a ten-foot wave in the ocean behind them.

"Keep in mind that in gem terms, I am among the weakest in terms of physical strength," said the one on the left.

"Homeworld has entire armies of gems, each one being magnitudes stronger than any human and outnumber you over a million to one," warned the one in the middle.

"And as for your weapons? They have genuinely leveled planets before from orbit and the only reason they don't do that here is because the stakes are personal," finished the one on the right. Once Van made sure he was not going to have a heart attack, he wrote down a phone number to contact him with and bid them farewell.

"Pearl, was it really necessary to spook him like that?" asked Greg once the gem had sent her clones off to get back to work on reconstruction.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but yes. There were a few times humans got caught in the crossfire in the gem war and the results were horrific."

She then knelt down and looked Steven in the eye. "Steven, I'm going to warn you that your training is going to get much more intense from here on out. We need you to be as ready as possible for whenever Homeworld comes again."

"Is…" the boy stuttered, "Is it really that bad?"

"I'm afraid so. That last attack proved that all of the Diamonds are involved in this now. And by personally showing up White Diamond, we might as well have signed a formal declaration of war."

**Next time on this story, some more time with Connie and her new powers! **

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below!**


	48. Crystal Unclear

**And like I promised, it's time to take a look at Connie's new powers!**

The next few days passed in relative peace for the Crystal Gems as Beach City was slowly restored to former glory. It took hundreds of panes of glass, clones of Pearl working into the night and a bit of help from Peridot to get the Wi-Fi back up and running but soon the sleepy town was back in shape save for a few potholes and trashed cars littering the place.

As this happened, though, Steven found he was truly getting back into the swing of his training. Garnet ramped up his workouts to include several laps swimming in the ocean at high tide and actually lifting weights in Rose's room. Pearl was back to training him in his weapons, though now they were mostly sparring to keep his skills sharp. Amethyst made very good use of her speed to resume her custom-brand sneak attack training though it did make for the hilarious sight of her crashing into his bubble at Mach 6.

Even the other Crystal Gems started getting in on it. Adamite made a rock obstacle course for him in her room to keep up his reflexes and endurance. Lapis became a new sparring partner who threw almost everything she could think of at him with water constructs. Topaz not only joined him on his training sessions to get better at hand-to-hand from Pearl, but even started showing him how to use her double mace and pugil stick combo to further boost his versatility.

At last, however, it was time for another major development. After spending a few days at home under her mother's orders to see if the odd status of her hand would resolve itself, Connie was to finally see the Crystal Gems over the issue. When she entered the beach house, she noticed how quiet the abode was. Only Topaz and Pearl were present with the two chatting about the Sun Incinerator.

"As the captain of the vessel," said the latter, "I thought I'd run the idea by you first and foremost. Peridot's convinced that with all the ships left over from Homeworld's invasion that she can develop several upgrades that would help us out later."

"Really? What did she have in mind?" asked the fused captain.

"First and foremost, she wants to equip a short-range teleportation device. She wants to avoid a repeat of this last incident so that if any form of barrier was made the ship could just phase through it."

"Wow, that does sound handy! I mean, I have no idea how we'd be able to make something like that but it could be a huge help!"

"Aside from that, it's just essentially increased weapons and speed. The ship might have been the cusp of Homeworld's engineering when Lars first commandeered, but even the weeks since then might be enough to overwhelm it."

"Um, hello?" asked Connie, "Am I interrupting anything?"

"Oh, there you are Connie! Sorry about that, got a bit carried away. Topaz, would you care to join us?"

"No thanks. Topaz wants to see if she can help outside while Topaz runs some tests on the ship."

The captain then split into her components and gave a brief kiss before one warped away while the other walked out the door. Soon it was just Pearl and her disciple standing in the empty house.

"So, any changes?" asked Pearl, "Does it feel uncomfortable?"

"Nope. I can still feel everything fine even though it's super hard like this. It does weird me out a bit, but it's growing on me."

"Well, I hope you don't mind but Steven and Garnet will be joining us. They're at the Sky Arena training right now."

"No, it's cool. I think the three of you are the best people for this. Having a doctor for a mom doesn't really cover this."

The two then stepped onto the warp pad and were whisked away to their usual training ground. They soon found the other half of their group in the middle of the arena with Steven doing pushups while Garnet stood on his back conjuring balls of ice and fire while her trainee exercised.

"That's 150," said the fusion, "Not bad. Give me a few more and we'll call it for a break."

The boy responded by grunting as he lowered himself again, his face sweating and his limbs making it very clear they were burning. He also caught Connie arriving and that made him lose his focus. He tried to wave hello to her, but that meant his balance was completely gone and his face met the stone floor. Garnet just walked off and dusted the boy off.

"You know what, that's enough," she said, "I think you've earned a break."

He gave a very muffled thanks and simply let his muscles relax while Garnet went over to Connie.

"Nice to see you again, Connie. I hope your family is doing well."

"Oh yeah, they're great. There's been a few people in the hospital with injuries for Mom, but Dad's getting paid leave from work because of all this. What's been going on with you all?"

Pearl, feeling she had a right to know, spoke about Agent Van and how they had now caught the attention of the government. While Garnet had been told about it with the rest of the team the day after, the girl was a bit stunned.

"Wow… So, does this mean some guys in dark suits are gonna show up and wipe my mind of all of this?"

"They try that," said Garnet, "And I punch them into next week."

"Trust me, Connie, Van was merely trying to look out for all the people that Homeworld might hurt in the crossfire," added Pearl, "And he seems very aware of just how outpaced human technology is compared to ours. Although I am impressed to see what people come up with next, your most modern devices would be seen as nothing but archaic in gem terms."

"Yeesh. Not exactly an optimistic picture, is it?" Connie looked down at her green hand, swearing it felt much colder.

"Never has been, but that never stopped us before," assured Garnet, "But enough of that. It's time to get down to business."

"Yep!" said Steven as he stood fully refreshed, "Now let's see what awesome magic powers you have now!"

The girl giggled at his optimism. Deciding she had spent enough time waiting, she got changed behind the stands into her usual training outfit with the gauze missing from her arms. With a brief flick of her wrist, Connie made the sword appear again and stood to face Pearl in a spar.

"Are you ready?" asked her mentor. Connie nodded and soon they were both rushing at each other. While Steven and Garnet watched from the sidelines, they immediately noticed something different about the girl. Her swings carried far more power behind them, and she seemed to be moving faster than before. The sudden increase in her skill was enough to put Pearl on edge and realize how different this was. Despite knowing most of her moves ahead of time, the amount of force behind them left her shocked.

"Wow, look at her go!" Steven gaped, "She's got Pearl on the ropes!"

"Very true," added Garnet, "But you should know that power doesn't always mean someone will win."

The duelists continued trading blows, becoming more evenly matched as Pearl learned to adapt to the new power Connie had and soon they were back on even footing. As Connie went for an jumping slash, Pearl flipped to the side and landed a kick to the girl's back to send her sprawling. The gem was about to check to see if she injured her, but Connie managed to catch herself on her feet and literally leap back into action with a flying kick straight towards Pearl.

"Whoa!" gasped the sensei as she barely managed to dodge. Steven and Garnet were also shocked in the stands to see that Connie's legs were both the same green crystal up to her knees.

"Whoops! Sorry!" stammered the girl, not sure how she did that.

"Connie, look down!" said Steven. His friend did just that and was stunned to see her new legs. Even the legs of her pants had completely melded into the crystal and somehow her bare feet felt no different.

"Neat," said Garnet, as calm as ever, "Let's see what she can do now."

Feeling it was only right to continue, Connie ran in again with another sword materialized for her. The enhanced strength her arm had was now true for feet as she ran at Pearl several times faster and she had a much easier time maintaining her stance. Her mentor even tried to sweep her legs, but only injured her foot as a result.

"Ouch! Good thing Amethyst isn't here…"

"Don't worry about it, Pearl," said Steven, "I still think you're cool!"

While the other three were impressed, Connie was getting a tad worried. A small part of her was excited how strong she was now but this was starting to get too strange for her. Nevertheless, once her mentor recovered the sparring resumed and the same pattern happened. As Pearl fought longer and got a grip on Connie's new power she adapted to the situation. She sent a wide swing that targeted her only normal appendage.

The girl leapt out of the way, but the spear managed to graze her arm and leave a cut. Seeing the damage, Pearl immediately stopped and got some gauze from her gem.

"Oh my goodness! Connie, I'm so sorry I-"

"Hey, don't worry, accidents happen," the girl brushed off, "I'm sure Steven's gotten some scrapes from all this."

"Plus a few burns, one sprained ankle and two cases of pink eye."

"WHAT?!" yelped Pearl, "Where did all those come from and how did I never know?!"

"That fountain water, that's how," explained Garnet, "One drop is just right to fix little injuries like that."

While Connie laughed at that, Pearl tried wrapping her arm in bandages but noticed something odd. As she tried to cover her arm, she found the gauze seemed to be coming apart the more she wrapped it. When she tried pulling it taut, the stuff just broke and fell off her right arm to reveal the entire thing was crystal up to her shoulder.

"Huh?! What-? How-?!"

"Interesting," said Garnet, "It looks like that happened because you were almost injured."

"Okay, this is too much! I almost broke my phone three times with just one hand like this! What's having an entire arm gonna do?!"

"I don't know but let's find out!" said Steven excitedly, bouncing up and down in his seat.

"Steven, aren't you worried? This feels kinda weird…"

"Connie, if you've had enough, no one's going to force you," assured Garnet, "If you want to stop for now, we can."

"Thanks, Garnet."

The four warped back to the house with Steven looking noticeably bummed that the entire event was cut short. Once Connie was on her way back home, Pearl noticed how sour the boy seemed.

"Steven, what's wrong?"

"I guess… I didn't expect her to take it like that is all. I thought she would be super excited or something to have a power like that but she seemed… afraid of it."

"Steven, she may be a Crystal Gem," explained Garnet, "But you've been in this line of work longer than her. You're used to seeing magical things on a daily basis."

"But so is Connie… She's been under the ocean, has weekly sword fighting lessons and has even fused! I get it that new stuff like this is weird but it can still be cool!"

"And one day, I'm sure she'll get used to it. Just give her some space and let her figure things out."

"Okay… You're right. It is her stuff so she's the only one who can do anything about it."

"Well, if you're looking to take your mind off it," suggested Pearl, "You could be training instead?"

The boy just sighed, but nonetheless ran outside with Pearl making two clones behind him to head outside and practice together. That left the two veteran rebels inside to ponder the situation.

"I get the feeling we're tampering with something we shouldn't," said Pearl quietly, "The way her arm crystallized as if responding to trauma is a useful power but-"

"It's all happening too fast for her," answered Garnet, "Like it or not, though, she's going to have to confront this."

"True. Steven usually just leapt into whatever new skills he had with no hesitation so what exactly do we do here?"

"I don't exactly know but knowing Connie she'll make it through. That girl's the most surprising Crystal Gem we've ever had."

When Connie returned home that day, her parents were stunned silent to see her. Now that all of her appendages seemed to look like geodes attached to her body, neither of them had any clue what to say. What did not help was their daughter being clearly evasive about the whole thing and just saying she wanted to go back tomorrow. Her intention was clear: she needed to sleep off today before doing anything else.

Connie headed to bed almost immediately after dinner that evening. Throughout the day she handled everything with her hands as gently as possible and even tiptoed across every floor as if her feet would break through the foundation. Even when she was alone, she would remain silent and simply stare at her arms and legs. It took almost an hour of lying in bed to finally drift into sleep, but her troubles did not end there.

When she opened her eyes, she was on a towel on the beach. As she sat up, the afternoon sun graced her skin and made her feel a warm comfort. That comfort turned into joy when she saw Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems all having fun in the ocean. As soon as Steven saw her, he beckoned her to join them all. When she looked down, she was even wearing her bathing suit. She all but jumped up off the ground and ran right to them, the hot sand tickling her feet, until she suddenly stopped. Right as she reached the zenith of the ocean, her foot fell asleep.

She stopped herself from falling over, but she could not get her foot to budge. When she looked down, she realized why it was being so stubborn. It was solid green crystal. She felt her heart rate spike at the sight but tried to remain calm. She tried dragging her leg along, hoping she could just power through the ordeal. That was a mistake since it made the crystal inch up her leg by the second. It soon got to the point where her leg felt like a massive weight that held her in place.

She noticed the Crystal Gems had stopped their fun in the ocean to watch her, growing more worried as they saw the material move up to her knee. Connie tried calling for help, but her voice refused to work. She tried reaching out for them, but soon her hand joined the process. The others all gasped and backed away as the change progressed from her fingertips down to the palm of her hand. The gentle warmth started to become a sweltering heat as both of her left appendages were crystallized, and the spread kept going. The heaviness in her limbs became too much for the beach beneath her and soon she fell through the sand into an open sky. She shrieked in terror as she plummeted even faster than normal, her increased weight raising her velocity, until she crashed through a building.

She somehow survived the fall, but that barely crossed her mind as something else happened around her. Four transparent plexiglass walls rose up from the floor around her and formed a box reaching to the ceiling. She soon saw none other than her parents and Steven standing outside while a stranger in a lab coat escorted them through a nearby door.

"Alright, I'm afraid visiting hours are over," the scientist said to the three, "The subject needs rest."

"When can we see her again?" asked her mother, clearly trying not to cry.

"I'm afraid with this recent progression in her condition, I cannot say. There's no telling if this new growth is reversible or if she is even stable."

"What?! My daughter isn't some monster!" protested Doug, "She couldn't hurt anyone!"

"On the contrary, Mr. Mahesweran, the tests we've run show she is a grave danger to everyone around her. Her strength and speed have grown at such a pace that, at this rate, there wouldn't be a power on Earth that could match her."

"So what?!" yelled Steven, "Connie's my best friend! She's the nicest, smartest, and most responsible person in the world! She'd never hurt anyone unless they deserve it! And I'm not gonna let you keep her here!"

The boy summoned a gauntlet over one hand and proceeded to bust down one of the walls containing Connie. Alarms soon blared to life as the door leading out of the room was closed off by a metal gate. Doug and Priyanka were soon dragged out of the room by two men in dark suits while half a dozen of them tried tackling Steven. The hybrid simply summoned a bubble and was unharmed as they crashed into his barrier and urged Connie to run after him as he made a break for it.

The two made their way through the facilities, corridors turning into blurs as every door they saw was covered by a metal shutter and were soon met by several hired guns aiming lasers at them. Rather than slow down, Steven brought out his shield and barreled through the blockade with his crystalline friend right behind him.

It was not long until they burst through the front door of the facility where they saw a massive chain-link fence separating the place from miles of empty desert. They both stood there in the open to catch their breaths, half-expecting the military or seem super powerful to appear to deter them but nothing happened. The two seemed to finally be in the clear as they quickly opened the front gate and sprinted into the dunes.

Eventually, after literal miles of running, they stopped at long last and realized they were free.

"We did it, Connie!" cheered Steven as he hugged her, "Let's go home!"

Connie hugged him back, her heart soaring after spending days trapped in that room, but that happiness would not last. A loud crunch sounded throughout the air, confusing Connie until she looked at Steven. His face was frozen in a scream of agony, but no sound came from him. His back was arched in an unnatural angle thanks to her arms wrapped around him. Before she could react to this, his body suddenly vanished into a puff of smoke leaving his gemstone behind.

She gingerly reached down to try and pick up the stone, trying to run through her mind what to do about this, but her body had other plans. Her fingers suddenly elongated into razor sharp claws and punctured the gem multiple times, reducing it to shards. She let out a piercing scream into the sky as her vision suddenly went black…

…And she woke up in her bedroom, the sun still hours away from rising. Her entire body felt ice cold and she heard her parents scrambling out of their room and into hers.

"Connie, what's going on?!"

"Honey, are you okay?!"

Priyanka quickly opened the door, but they did not enter once they did. They were too busy staring at their daughter who was now crystal from head to toe. Even her hair was one solid chunk of green draped behind her head and her eyes were only recognizable by the slightly darker green pupils they could barely make out in the unlit bedroom.

"Mom? Dad? What's wrong?" asked Connie, confused until she touched her hand to her forehead. A soft clang rang out, making the girl pray that she was still dreaming. When she turned to look at the mirror on her dresser, she caught sight of herself. Her reflection only made her fears realized and soon she could not take looking at herself. Her eyes welled up with tears, actually leaving her eyes as tiny gemstones, and literally ran straight through her bedroom wall. Despite being on the second floor of her house, Connie did not feel the drop and just ran off before she could accidentally hurt anyone like this.

The parents gaped at the new hole in the wall before snapping back to reality a few moments later. Doug first began dialing his work and the police while Priyanka pulled up Greg's phone number to relay the message to the rest of the Crystal Gems.

* * *

At the crack of dawn that day, the Crystal Gems awoke to find the news not only of Connie's transformation but that she had ran off to no one knows where. All other plans for the day were cancelled in favor of finding Connie as soon as possible.

"Alright, here's how we're gonna do this," commanded Garnet to the rest of the team, "Topaz, you will act as the coordinator. Since your ship has the best ability to cover ground, you will make continuous loops around the city."

Topaz merely nodded as the crew of the Sun Incinerator stood behind her, ready to depart at a moment's notice.

"Everyone else will be heading in one major direction. Thanks to Doug, we now have the local police keeping an eye out for her around town, so we need to cover the surrounding areas. Lapis and Peridot, you will head towards the barn."

"Aye aye, captain!" said Peridot as Lapis already deployed her wings, eager to take off.

"Amethyst, you start heading towards the Kindergarten. Cover as much ground as you can."

Amethyst had to stop herself from running off, figuring that Garnet would have more to her plan. She did not want to be fifty miles away in case there was more to do.

"Pearl, you and Greg are going to be going to Ocean Town and moving out from there. Pearl, get as many clones as you can once your there and spread out."

The unlikely duo nodded with Greg heading off to his van parked nearby, also ready to drive the second they were deployed.

"Adamite and Cinnabar, you'll be covering the northwest area since it's the only one not covered. There's mountains about forty miles out so in case she gets that far I need you to handle to the terrain."

"Understood," replied the earthbender. Cinnabar, in a rare moment of seriousness, was already hanging on to Adamite's back to start their expedition.

"And that leaves the three of us staying here."

"What, huh?" asked Steven, "What are we gonna do then?"

"We, my main man," spoke Bismuth proudly, "Are gonna be mission control for everybody here thanks to a little something special Peri and I've been cooking up. Check out these!"

The proud gem held out her hand to reveal a dozen tiny devices resembling common microchips, each one a mix of green and gold circuits over blue metal and the size of Steven's eye.

"These are hands-free communicators that will allow us to reach other anywhere in the world!" Peridot boasted, "They attached to the side of your head and all you have to do to activate them is say 'Connect to…' and then the name of the recipient!"

"Cool!" Steven immediately grabbed one and placed it on his cheek. As the others all took one, he wasted no time testing it once they were all online.

"Connect to Amethyst!"

"I hear you, Captain Goofball!"

"To disconnect, simply tap the chip and the connection is severed," explained Peridot further, "They are entirely unaffected by heat, depth beneath water or earth and cannot be intercepted by any current Homeworld communication system!"

"Bravo, Peridot," complimented Pearl, "This would have been a literal lifesaver back in the old days."

"Yeah, but nostalgia can wait," said Bismuth, "Now that we're all hooked up, it's time to ship out. Everyone know the plan?"

Everyone nodded and got into position. Topaz ran towards her ship, Greg and Pearl headed to the van, Lapis readied herself for takeoff and Adamite was set to dig.

"Remember, you find anything suspicious, you report it," advised Garnet, "We can never be too careful these days. Alright then, good luck and move out."

**Next time: the search for Connie! But will that be only thing the team finds? Tune in to find out! **

**Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	49. Field Trip

**Greetings, readers! Having gotten a break from school and FINALLY having finished watching Future, I think it's time to deliver another chapter! It's time for the Crystal Gems to search for Connie!**

The temple may have had only three people in it sitting around the fire pit, but the atmosphere was almost on part to Jasper's sudden appearance. Garnet, Bismuth and Steven had been listening for any sign of Connie for almost an hour now and had yet to find anything. Quick check-ins with everyone revealed nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing they had accomplished so far was Steven getting antsy.

"Ugh, can't we do anything else?" asked the boy, "I feel awful just sitting here."

"Once we get a reading on her possible location," explained Garnet, "We can use the warp pad to teleport to the pad nearest to her location. Then we can call in all the other members to head there as well and that way we'll be able to stop her from running off further."

"Heh, leave it to Garnet to think of everything," chuckled a very impressed Bismuth.

"Well, I definitely didn't see this coming, but the thought is appreciated."

"I also don't get it," continued Steven, "Connie freaking out over this. It seems… weird."

"Kid, I'm pretty sure spontaneously changing in your sleep is pretty weird," said Bismuth, "I may not need rest like that, but I wouldn't appreciate it either."

"I know that… But why not come here? We may not know what's happening, but we could all help her! I…"

"Steven, it's very sweet you want to help your friend," said Garnet, "And I'm sure she knows it too. She's just too scared to think straight. We may not know why, but that's why we need to find her all the more. An explanation from her would be a start to returning her to normal."

"I just thought the whole thing was super cool… She's way tougher and stronger and it's like she can't get hurt anymore so-"

"That's natural for gems, but not humans. There's an old saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Diamonds are living proof of that, but some people swear off power like that because they don't want to be tempted by it. You should know that."

Steven was confused until a certain incident came to mind. He suddenly felt much more sympathetic towards his friend, wanting more than ever to bring her back and help her through this. If there was anybody who understood the fear she was feeling, it was him.

* * *

"Steven, I'm reading you, respond," spoke Peridot into her communicator while Lapis concentrated on flying. As they passed over several freeways, the pilot found herself more interested in all the lakes in the region with another one every few feet.

"Any word on Connie?" asked the boy, "Has Topaz mentioned anything from her ship?"

"Negative. The best we learned from her is that those upgrades I gave to the control console are working."

"How is that answering his question?" asked Lapis.

"Hey, it was an answer! It just so happened to also remind him of my brilliance!"

While Lapis rolled her eyes at this, Steven just laughed it off and signed off to check on someone else. Once she was focused on her surroundings again, the inventor saw something glimmering off to the side.

"Pull a left and go about twenty miles," she instructed Lapis.

"What? Did you develop super special goggles in your sleep to let you see Connie from that far away?"

"No, but that's a fine concept… Urgh, I just saw something unusual. I could have sworn it looked like gem tech."

That got Lapis's attention and soon the two veered off-course to find that Peridot's hunch was right. Floating in one of the innumerable lakes around them was the remnants of an unusual device about as big as Peridot that was colored dark blue and was a near perfect sphere except for a tiny hole towards the bottom.

"What is it?" asked Lapis as the duo landed in the shallow water, "Looks like Homeworld tech."

"Definitely," agreed Peridot, "I'd recognize this metallurgy anywhere. I'd need to disassemble it in my lab to truly understand what it is, though. I don't recognize its design."

"I wonder what it's doing here?"

"Not sure, but we should make note of it. Once we complete this mission, we should recover it so Bismuth and I can analyze it further."

"Or…" Lapis then made a small platform out of the lake water and lifted the object with it, "…We could just bring it along. I can keep something like this going while flying."

"Excellent idea, my assistant! Now then, let us resume our search!" Before Peridot could her feet out of the water, a pair of liquid shackles suddenly tied her feet together and made her fall flat on her face with a splash.

"Excuse me, assistant?"

"Ugh, fine, sorry… Partner-in-crime?"

"Better."

The two then flew off in relative peace, a newfound trinket floating alongside them, but the main focus was once again on finding Connie.

* * *

"Steven, this is Pearl," asked the maternal gem from the passenger seat of Greg's van, "Status update?"

"Yeah. Any word?"

"Nope. I dropped off a clone in Ocean Town to scout around there about two hours ago and I sent one more out into the forest along the highway, but we're coming up on another town in a few miles."

"Okay, keep up the good work!"

Once Steven disconnected, Pearl returned her full attention to the window on her right. She had to admit there was something appealing about watching the world zoom past her like this even if she could run faster herself."

"You know, I just wondered something," asked Greg, "How does you sending clones help us out much? I mean, sure, it means more eyes on the lookout but how will you know?"

"When I disperse one of my clones, I retain whatever memories or information she has. They all come from my gem so that's where they all return if they fall in combat or I simply retire them. In this case, the clones can even disperse themselves so that once they find a sign of Connie I'll know immediately."

"Man, that's some wild stuff. Remember when life used to be simple?"

"You mean the two of us acting like petty teenagers about Rose?"

Greg just chuckled at that. "Yeah… It's pretty insane to think how long ago that was."

"For me, it was like yesterday. That does remind me… I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what?"

"Treating you so terribly. And I don't mean just competing over Rose. Greg, there was a long time I thought you weren't a proper guardian for Steven. For the first few years whenever he'd visit you, I was tempted to spy on you, but Garnet just kept telling me to relax. It took until Steven was seven for that to finally happen."

While Greg was surprised to hear that, he still kept his eyes on the road. "I think it's safe to say we were both pretty clueless about this whole parenting thing. I just went along with whatever you guys did since I have no way of knowing how Steven should be for a gem."

"And we were all stumped over what to do with a human child for so long. I mean, we knew all the things _not _to do thanks to knowledge of basic human anatomy, but it was still nerve-wracking."

"Hey, we could have finally agreed on something!"

The two laughed at that before Pearl added something else. "Now that's not true. We both would've looked dapper in tuxedoes as well."

Greg had to keep his hands glued onto the steering wheel as they both lost it at that. The pair laughed their heads off for what felt like an eternity until another sleepy town appeared on the horizon.

"That must be Terra Cottage," said Pearl, "There's more mountains on almost every side of town."

"You say that like you're thinking something…"

Pearl made not one, but four clones that all began heading for the mountain town while the main two wondered if they should turn back.

"We've been driving for a good three hours," she then said, "And I'm fairly certain the next town is almost an hour away. With that many clones out there and the option to make five more, I think we should start heading back."

"You think? What she would do when we get back?"

"I've now got a small information network going so I can help the others with recon. Plus, the van's going to run out of gas at this rate."

The father only then noticed that the fuel gauge was hovering near empty. "Oh yeah… Guess it would better not to be deserted on the middle of a road."

"There was a gas station on the opposite side of the road about ten miles back."

Greg took her suggestion and soon the two were refueling the van, idly staring at the sky as more clouds began to gather. With their mission more or less accomplished, their focus turned to something else.

"I really need to get this fixed…" said Pearl as she watched the fuel pump send more gasoline into the van.

"What? You see a scratch anywhere?" asked Greg.

"No, I mean this whole system. I'm certain I could make something that could improve this design and get more mileage."

"Really?! You think you could make this thing run on air or something?"

"Less think and more know," she boasted, "Considering I once made a rocket from a bunch of spare parts, I believe that shouldn't be too hard. Plus, Peridot could be helpful in ironing out any problems I run into."

"Man… My aunt and uncle would kill to know that. They always wanted to make a plane that didn't need refueling. Aunt Debra said she would live in the sky if she could…"

"Debra?"

"Andy's mom and my aunt. Super nice lady who always wanted the best for me. When my mother tried calling her to get me to 'see reason' she turned around and said to let me do whatever I wanted."

Pearl remained quiet as Greg looked up at the sky, completely lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah, that lady was a dreamer, but she had nothing on Uncle Rohan. That man saw the moon flight as a kid and from that day forward, he wanted to make it higher than anyone in history. If you made that rocket contraption again, Pearl, he'd jump in with you in a heartbeat."

"They both sound like wonderful people…" commented Pearl.

"Yeah, I really wish they could've seen half the stuff I have… Oh my god."

"What?"

"I never told them about Steven. Ever. I feel terrible…"

"Greg, it's alright. You've been through a lot the past few years. If anything, maybe your parents would appreciate-"

"No. They wouldn't, Pearl. Trust me when I say it's best that Steven never met his grandparents."

"Why? I mean, sure it is a lot to take in what with the whole half-alien issue, but they could adapt!"

"Nope. They'd hate his shirt."

Pearl had to blink several times before that thought registered. "What? Why?"

"It's pink."

"So?! He enjoys pink!"

"But he's a boy. Boys don't wear pink. That's a girl color."

"That's just absurd!"

"And all those cartoons he likes to watch? The day he turned about seven, he wouldn't be allowed to watch them anymore."

"But animation is such an enriching medium!"

"And homeschooling? Ha, they probably still think that's an elaborate conspiracy to brainwash children to overthrow society or something. And when he does get there, he'll be forced to join the wrestling team and stay there even after he gets a broken arm AND any of his friends that don't meet their approval just get thrown out the door and let's not get started on him being a teenager and-"

"Greg, breathe!" she shouted, literally grabbing him by shoulders, "I get it! Point made!"

The father really did have to take a deep breath in order to get himself under control. Once he was done, he simply removed the gas pump and waited for Pearl to re-enter the vehicle before driving off in silence. It took at least twenty miles for him to finally speak again.

"Sorry I dumped all that on you… I really don't like talking about it for a reason."

"I get it. And I mean that sincerely, Greg. I may not have ever been a child, but my past wasn't exactly pretty either. If you need someone to vent, I'm available."

That got a chuckle out of Greg. "Hey, that's another thing we have in common. Why'd we never get along for so long?"

"Because we were stupid kids." The rest of the drive home was a peaceful one with the two bonding over jokes about the terrible authority figures in their lives.

* * *

Almost a hundred miles away from Beach City, on a different part of the same mountains where they tried to reach the old wailing stone, Adamite emerged from underground Cinnabar on her back. The earthbender found that Peridot was right about the signal on her communicator working at any depth, but the sounds of her tunneling made it near-impossible for her to hear anything.

"Steven?" she spoke into her device, "This is Adamite, come in."

"Any progress yet?"

"Negative. Neither Cinnabar nor I have any sign of her, but I might have a way to track her better. I'll report in as soon as we find anything."

The connection ended as Cinnabar took the time to stretch her legs and idly juggle a fireball between her hands while her comrade talked. The last bit, however, made her curious.

"You have a way to find Connie? How? Throw up boulders until you almost hit her with one?"

"Ha-ha, very funny. I was actually trying to do something similar to these electronic devices and sent out seismic wavelengths to better ascertain Connie's location."

"…What does that mean?"

"Oh brother…" Rather than explain, Adamite stomped the ground as hard as possible and sent a wave of her power throughout the surface. After a few second of waiting, she pointed up towards a peak in front of her about forty feet away.

"There's a hollow fallen tree on that ledge," she declared before leaping her way up to it. When Cinnabar followed her up, she was shocked to find the same thing right where her friend pointed.

"It actually works!" she gasped, "We can use this to find Connie in no time!"

"It's not a perfect process," said Adamite, "I only got a rough approximation of the shape and this is pretty much the extent of the range. In order for it to be more effective, I'd need to make a larger impact…"

Cinnabar then watched as her partner leapt straight off the ledge and hit the ground with both her feet and caused a small-scale earthquake in the process. As Cinnabar headed down, impressed by the fissures in the ground and a few trees knocked over from the impact, Adamite was trying to focus to all the information she received from her shockwave travelling for miles. Her focus was stretched to its limit going through thousands of shapes and details until something caught her attention.

"Come on," she suddenly said, running away from the crash site and deeper into a nearby grove. Cinnabar ran behind her and as the elementals ran through the trees, Adamite kept sending out smaller shockwaves through her feet to get a better lock on her target. Little by little they got closer until they found an inconspicuous cave.

"This might be it…" the tracker said to herself, sending out one last stomp to confirm her hunch. A few seconds later she headed inside and the sound of someone crying could be heard echoing off the walls.

"No way…" gasped Cinnabar as her friend smirked, satisfied that her hunch paid off. The elemental gems both ran inside, the firebender glowing once they were in too deep for the natural light to reach them and finally found Connie, still in her crystalline form, sitting against on the back wall of the cave.

The young girl opened her eyes fully and was stunned silent to see the two Crystal Gems staring back at her. While Cinnabar was bouncing on her heels with happiness, Adamite seemed to be observing her. The silence permeated the air until Connie finally spoke up.

"Go away, you guys," she said hoarsely, "I… I need to be alone."

"No, you don't," rebuffed Adamite, surprising both the others, "What you need is to stop being foolish and return home where we can assist you with this anomaly."

"W-Wha?"

"You heard me. Get up and let's go home."

"But Adamite… Look at me! I-I'm-"

"Never going to find the answer to this dilemma sitting in here being sorry for yourself. Am I wrong?"

"Aren't you being a little harsh?" asked Cinnabar.

"Perhaps, but we have a mission and I am _not _going to face Steven and the others and tell them that we failed to retrieve Connie because of her own self-pity."

"I'm afraid," Connie spoke up, "I… I don't want to know how I could end up hurting someone like this. I broke through a wall like running through tissue paper, Adamite."

"I am aware of that, but this issue is not going to be solved by avoiding it. The least you could do is come back to the others where we have a chance to explore this new condition and study it rather than let you blindly wander around."

"You know…" mentioned Cinnabar, "She has a point. We kind of did the same thing for… I dunno, 5,500 years? I still don't know exactly how Earth time works, but just waiting for answers doesn't usually work."

"Exactly. Had we actively sought out answers instead of idly hoping for Homeworld to recover us we might have seen how corrupt they truly were and thus pursued something better."

Connie felt a bit of relief in her chest. She wanted to believe her words, but for a moment she thought of Steven. Her nightmare flashed before her then, the sickening sound of her accidentally crushing his spine and then his gem being shattered.

"No!" she yelled with her arm stretched forward. A green crystalline sword literally grew out of her palm and flew straight towards the gems and forced them both to dodge.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry!" she hastily apologized, but her instincts had been kicked on. Two more swords came out of her back and floated behind briefly for a moment before they also tried to stab the elementals. Adamite, however, was ready this time and quickly brought up a rock wall to stop them.

"Connie, knock it off!" said Cinnabar, "You don't have to hurt us!"

"I don't want to!" the girl cried, "It's not me doing it!" She then ran forward and tackled Cinnabar with enough force to rattle the cave. She ran outside and over a hundred yards away in a few seconds before stopping suddenly and sending the arsonist flying even further.

"Connie, please," said Adamite as she ran out of the cave behind her, "I can't say for certain, but it seems your negative emotions are driving your body to act this way. You need to relax or else…"

"Relax?! How can I relax if I destroy everything around me?!" More swords began sprouting from her body as she suddenly ran at Adamite and tried punching the bulkier gem in the stomach. Four blades followed behind her as she landed the blow, making the alien double over as two of the weapons reading themselves to impale her from above. Thankfully for her, Cinnabar regained her footing and threw a fireball hard enough to push the weapons out of the way so they hit the ground instead.

"I'm really sorry for this," she said, "But if we have to do this to bring you home, then I'll do it!"

She raised her fists as all of her limbs ignited. "I'm not failing Steven! He and the rest of them want you home!"

Cinnabar then dashed ahead, a flaming trail in her wake as she tried attacking from behind. The other two swords behind Connie, however, had other plans and quickly moved to stop her fist. A third one literally jutted out of her back and tried to catch her off-guard, but the gem leaped back at the right time while launching a stream of flame.

Connie ended up being doused in the flame, but she seemed no worse for wear. She instead grabbed hold of two more blades and suddenly jumped high enough to reach Cinnabar and tried cutting her down.

"This," said the gem as she dodged, "Would be really cool if you weren't trying to fight us!"

"I'm want to stop!" said Connie desperately, "But it's like nothing is listening to my brain!"

Their midair duel stopped when a giant pillar of rock got between with Adamite suddenly popped out and tackled Connie to the ground. The earthen gem tried wrapping her arms around her, hoping to restrain her long enough to come up with a more concrete plan, but Connie's form still had more surprises.

Her arms themselves turned into two large blades and she nearly stabbed her foe straight through the stomach. If it were not for the gem feeling her form shifting under her, she could have been poofed.

Adamite pushed herself off and burrowed back into the pillar while Connie hit the ground with a thud, her arms shifting back to normal seamlessly, before getting up just as Cinnabar hit her with a high velocity fireball. While there was not any burning, it was still a blow to the head that made her stumble while Adamite regrouped with her partner.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," said the more mature one of the pair, "And try to avoid getting close. I nearly learned the hard way that she can shapeshift."

"Well my flames don't seem to be working much," responded the firebender, "That means you're the better one to fight her directly."

"In that case, I need you to keep her distracted. Use your natural loudness to your advantage while I try to restrain her."

"Got it!"

The two elementals rushed in opposite directions as Connie grabbed hold of another sword. Cinnabar launched several small fire bullets as she ran to throw her off, but she simply swung her weapon and dissipated most of them. Her attacks did their main job of keeping her attention, though, as Adamite ran up behind her with her beefy arms covered in stones. She sent both her hands into her back and was shocked to see a spiderweb of cracks from the impact.

"What the-?!" gaped Adamite, her concentration gone as Connie screamed in pain, "I… Oh dear…"

"What did you do?!" shouted Cinnabar as she did not see the problem.

"Made this situation worse."

She did not know the half of it as the cracks suddenly began to heal as Connie's back arched as if she was electrocuted. Once her injuries were healed a few seconds later, a massive spike of crystal extended out of her back and only missed Adamite because Cinnabar yanked away by the shoulder just in the nick of time.

"Sorry guys!" said the girl as the gigantic spike receded back into her, "I'm better now."

"Adamite, any other plans?"

"Force isn't working. Something tells me that will happen every time someone inflicts any lasting harm to her."

"If only Steven were here…"

"Wait a minute… Cinnabar, call Steven with your communicator. I'm going to distract her."

"Alrighty…"

"Connie!" said the rock-slinging gem as she lifted dozens of tiny stones from the ground, "We've got an idea. It might take a moment for Cinnabar to complete, but it might be enough to return you to normal."

"Trust me, I hope it works," she said as her hands suddenly shifted into two hammerheads just like Bismuth did. Adamite flung the volley of stones after her, but this time the girl charged right through. She stretched both her arms behind her and snapped them back, aiming to smash her head between the two hammers, but the Crystal Gem prepared for this. A rock spire jutted out and smacked Connie upside the head enough to throw off her attack and let the gem escape.

Meanwhile, Cinnabar had connected to Steven and asked him to try to get Peridot to explain how to take off her communicator. It took some input from Garnet, but it turns out all she needed to do was press down for fifteen seconds to get the device to release itself. Even for that short time, though, the process was nerve-wracking as she had to watch her partner try to evade Connie without being able to launch much of a counteroffensive.

Adamite tried burrowing underground to ambush her foe, but Connie was more than ready with three more gem-swords floating at the ready to slash at her. The sabers slashed at her in the air and it took her arming herself with the same rock gauntlets to stop her arms from being sliced off.

"I've got it!" shouted Cinnabar victoriously, holding the delicate chip in her hands just as Adamite leapt to safety again. Connie sent the three blades after her again, but now her opponent was much more confident.

"Excellent. Get in close enough and get that chip on her face."

"Wait, what?" asked the girl just long enough for Cinnabar to blaze herself a foot away from the crystalline teen. The girl's body tried to counterattack, but Adamite plummeted back to Earth once again and made several rock rings to trap the girl from the neck down. Each of the four rings was several feet thick and it quickly proved enough to finally keep her still long enough for Cinnabar to run over them and place the communicator chip on her face.

"Connie, quick, say 'Connect to Steven!'"

"Connect to Steven!"

In no time at all, her struggling body went limp as the boy's voice came through the communicator. "Connie! Thank goodness they found you! Where were you?"

"In a cave. I… Just ran for like eight hours straight until I got there and started crying. Steven… I can't tell you how sorry I am."

"Don't be, I get it. New powers are never easy. You've heard all the stories of my body or gem going haywire."

"Heh, thanks. I know I shouldn't have ran away, but I was so terrified. I threw a huge fit about you throwing yourself into danger a while ago and I was scared that I would hurt you like this. I don't know if I could live with myself if I was the one who hurt you…"

"Connie…"

"I've been fighting Adamite and Cinnabar this whole time. My body's been moving this whole time without me being able to control it."

"Then that's the reason why we need you back here!"

"I know that, but what if I end up hurting you, or the gems or my parents! They're normal humans, Steven, and I've been throwing around swords and walking through fire!"

"Dad's had some close calls with this stuff and he's just fine! Plus, now he's got a suit to protect him so maybe Peridot can help make more for your parents?"

"You really think so? You'd all do that… for me?"

"Connie, you're a Crystal Gem. That doesn't change just because something weird has happened to you. It didn't change when Garnet split herself up, or when Amethyst ran away from home, or when Pearl nearly blew herself up in a rocket ship. We've always stuck together, no matter how freaky it gets, and if we have to spend years getting your powers under control then we'll do it!"

The young girl's body started shimmering suddenly as her body finally shifted back to her normal dark skin and clothes. Seeing her back to normal, Adamite lowered the barriers around her.

"Thank you, Steven," she said tearfully, "I'm ready to come home now."

"Great! I'll call Topaz to have you all picked up!"

With the line disconnected, Connie walked up to a pleased-looking Adamite and spoke to her.

"Your plan worked. Turns out all I needed was a little talk to get my head on straight."

"Do not fret the details. We have all made poor decisions in the past. Plus, I would not have accomplished this without Cinnabar."

"Aw, thanks buddy!" said the arsonist as she gave her a hug.

"After all," continued the earthbender with a rare smirk, "If anyone knows about her powers going out of control it's her. You can consider her an objective marker to compare yourself against."

"Yeah, that- HEY! What do you mean?! I've gotten much better at controlling my fire! I haven't burned anything down in weeks!"

Adamite just pointed her thumb behind her to the row of trees going up in flames. The flame bullets from earlier that missed Connie made it to the edge of the forest and quickly ignited the greenery.

Seeing the wildfire raging, Cinnabar nervously chuckled as she ran over and quickly started absorbing the flames. Connie, exhausted from the day's events, laughed it off while Adamite calmly waited for their ride.

**I got a few questions about Connie's new form and I hope my work met your expectations! And once she gets proper training under her belt, she'll be another addition to the Crystal Gems fighting force! Until next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below!**


	50. Advance Force

**On this day two years ago, I uploaded the first story of this chapter to AO3. Now to commemorate such an occasion, here is the chapter 50! I honestly can't believe how much support I've gotten for this story and I want to thank each and every one of you for reading this story. Whether you've just started or have been around since the beginning, I thank you and hope you'll be here once How It Will End actually ends. But that's enough showboating. To the story!**

It was a happy reunion for Connie once she returned to Beach City. Even if her mother gave her the chewing out of her life for running away and giving them no clue, the others were all too welcome to let it slide. A repair crew would be working on her room for the next few days to make a new bedroom wall, meaning she would sleeping on the living room couch, until the job was mostly done. That was not the first thing on her mind, though, since now the Crystal Gems were interested in her powers.

Garnet pulled the Maheswerans aside to explain that now that their daughter was back, they needed to start training her properly use her powers.

"I know it's not what you wanted to hear," explained the fusion, "But we need every advantage we can get."

The mother wanted to protest, insisting her little girl was not fit for fighting in battles, but she knew all too well that was wrong. Connie told her some of the stunts she pulled off in her brief exile and now she was wondering if she even could ground the girl since she could easily bust down any room they put her in.

"Garnet…" said Doug, "I really don't like it, but I understand. We'd be selfish trying to keep Connie away when the whole planet could need her power. Plus we're pretty clueless on how this all works."

"Agreed," said Priyanka, "Just thinking of the sheer changes to her physiology makes my head spin. Almost a decade learning about the human body is pretty useless when your daughter can make herself into a crystal of mass destruction."

"I'm grateful you both see it this way," said Garnet, "And I wish that it didn't come to this. But believe me that all of us will do everything in our power to protect Connie. Your daughter is a Crystal Gem through and through and like Steven told her, we never abandon our own."

"Thank you. It's nice to hear, but can we at least bring her home now?" asked Doug, "We need to at least make sure none of her things are damaged."

"Of course. Give us a call if anything unexpected happens."

Once the Mahesweran family drove off for the day, the rest of the Crystal Gems spread out to return to their normal activities. The only exceptions were Topaz heading off with Garnet to train for the next few hours while Lapis stopped Adamite and Cinnabar on their way back to their respective rooms.

"Wait up," said the waterbender, "I wanted to say thanks. I don't think we would've gotten Connie back so soon if it weren't for you two."

"It was only a mission," assured Adamite, "I'm confident that anyone else could have accomplished what we did."

"Uh, I'm not sure about that," boasted Cinnabar, "Who else could have thought of a new tracking method on the fly like that?"

"Wait, what?" asked Lapis. As soon as she asked, Cinnabar was all too happy to tell her about their trip and how Adamite's concept of seismic scanning turned locating Connie in the mountains into a total breeze.

"Man, that's pretty impressive. It almost makes me wonder what else I could do with my powers."

"If you need any assistance with that…" said Adamite, though looking much shakier than usual, "You could ask me."

"Thanks. I'd like that."

With that, Lapis went into the house and off to her room to brainstorm new ideas. Although Adamite followed her soon after, Cinnabar was beginning to wonder what was causing her unshakeable friend to get so flustered these days.

"Hmmmm… I think I need to bring this up to Garnet. She seems like the right person to ask about love."

* * *

Once again, relative peace had returned to the temple but that did not mean the Crystal Gems were idle. Everyone was off accomplishing their duties from scouting trips in the Sun Incinerator to training. That included Peridot who was engrossed with her latest project in her lab room. The mysterious sphere she and Lapis found on their search mission was on an examination table of tangible holograms and the scientist was trying to crack it open.

"Now then, my prey," she muttered to herself, "Do yourself a favor and reveal your secrets. I spent hundreds of years toiling away with spherical drones such as yourself and I won't hesitate to crack you open."

"Knock knock!" said Bismuth as she entered through the special doorway from her workshop, right behind the mumbling inventor.

"Gah! Do not interrupt me when I'm talking down my prey!"

"Huh?"

"I mean, Bismuth, come right in!"

"Okay then… You want any help with this thing?"

"Given your knowledge of metallurgy, it would be appreciated."

The dreadlocked gem walked over and looked it over, looking for any obvious faults in the casing. She casually walked over to one of the large tool racks and pulled off a handheld saw. She turned the appliance on and saw the blade harmlessly bounced off the object. She then took an ordinary chisel off another rack and then placed near the top of the sphere. With one hand shifted into a hammerhead, she took a great deal of time lining up the chisel to the exact right point before taking one swing with her hand. The sphere literally cracked in half like an egg with its insides completely untouched when she was done.

"What the… How did… I…" stammered Peridot.

"Trust me, if there's one thing Homeworld hasn't changed much," boasted the gem, "It's their materials. Same junk those clods had me making wall panels out of eons ago."

"Well then, all the better reason to have you on standby in these cases. But now it's my turn to work!"

Peridot pulled off several screwdrivers, a pair of pliers and what appeared to be a lead box used for radioactive waste from her endless shelves and quickly got to work sorting through the internal components until she got to her objective.

"There you are…" she grumbled as she delicately pulled out a glowing white cube with various gem-letters flashing on each side.

"Okay, they didn't have those in my day," said a curious Bismuth, "What is that thing?"

"The core geode. This has all the data I need to find out just what this contraption is for…"

She then placed the geode on the floor and then snapped her fingers. Bismuth had a double-take when a bolt of lightning from the walls suddenly came out and struck the geode and caused a ten-foot tall holo-screen appeared. Peridot then pulled out a pair of modified Puntendo power gloves and soon began scrolling through the mass of data in front of her.

"This is going to take a few minutes," insisted Peridot, "IF you want, pull up a chair and watch me work my magic."

"Oh my, how gracious," taunted Bismuth before pulling a metal folding chair from the wall rack, "Let's see if you're that cocky when I tell everyone how you work with your 'prey.'"

"Do that and _I_ let it slip that you name all the weapons in your display case!"

"Go ahead, tell them. I'd love people to see Monado, Buster, Gun Show, and Rebecca."

Peridot kept her eyes closed. "Touché…"

* * *

The next day, training was in full swing for both Steven and Connie. While Steven's regiment was still more physically oriented, Connie's first lesson was in meditation. As the boy was off running a few laps around the town, Garnet spent the alone time with the girl to try and ease her into changing at will.

"Take a deep breath and find your center," said the fusion to her disciple. The studious girl, dressed in her blue gi, did as she was told. She could feel her body get more relaxed with each breath.

"Now try and visualize yourself in that form."

Connie remembered her crystalline body well, having spent over twelve hours in it, and tried to imagine her body become green stone again. After several minutes, however, she opened her eyes to find herself completely the same.

"Do not worry," assured her mentor, "Let's try something different. Try recalling the feelings you had when you transformed."

Connie's mind flashed back to that awful moment where a random gem goon threatened her father and was trying to make off with her mom. In an instant, her body shapeshifted into crystal.

"Well, that was simple," said Garnet, "I could've sworn I saw a path where this would take hours."

"I don't think it's a coincidence my powers are like this," commented the girl, "Since Steven's also has his emotions linked to his powers and it was probably his cure that woke me up from my coma that did this."

"Makes sense to me. Now that you're ready, I want you to start running laps around town like Steven is and don't stop until you drop. I need to see how your endurance is like this."

Connie ran off, but only a few minutes later her body changed back to normal. A quick think back to that night, though, and she changed back. As the girl tried to keep her mind focused, Garnet saw the rapid changing and realized she might have more work than she thought.

It took some time, but Connie eventually rejoined Steven and soon the two were running laps together. The townspeople of Beach City were so numb to weirdness at this point that they barely even noticed the girl who looked like the wall of a diamond mine run by and occasionally have to force one of her arms or legs to stay hardened.

"Are you doing okay?" asked Steven on their fourth lap together.

"It's just my body," she responded, nearly tripping because her right leg became flesh again, "I just need to focus more."

"Maybe not…"

"Huh?" Steven brought them both a stop for a moment and turned to face her.

"Maybe the problem is that you're thinking too much. Using your powers is a skill, but it doesn't come through thinking. I always just kind of let it happen and it usually turns out fine."

"Isn't that how the whole cat fingers debacle happened?"

"Ehm, like I said, _usually _turns out fine. We all have our mess-ups. But Connie, try not to think about it too much. Just trust your feelings and you might be surprised."

Steven soon started jogging again and Connie tried her best to simply focus on running instead of her powers. Pretty soon the boy ended up jogging backwards and blew a raspberry at her, clearly trying to goad her into a race. Much to her surprise, the girl found it easy to keep up with the half-gem and soon they were laughing and taunting their way to over a dozen laps. While it was a pleasant jog to them, the bystanders were surprised to see two kids running around town at nearly forty miles an hour.

Eventually, all the running began catching up to them and both were panting for breath in front of a very pleased Garnet.

"Twenty-seven laps. An impressive start."

"Heh, thanks," said Steven as he gratefully took one of the water bottles Garnet brought.

"And Connie, it seems like your maintaining your form much easier."

"Huh?" Connie only just then looked down and realized she did in fact stay in her crystal form for nearly an hour.

"I guess I just got a feeling for it?" she said, eliciting a chuckle out of both of them. Now that she seemed to have a better handle on things, Pearl stepped in to iron out the finer points of Connie's new style while Garnet resumed her usual work with Steven. The rest of the day passed in relative peace with the two trainees enjoying the sunset on the beach and many of the Crystal Gems out and about until Peridot emerged from her room.

"Everyone, I have urgent news!"

"You've found out what that bizarre device you located yesterday does?" guessed Pearl.

"Indeed, and I must say it's disconcerting. It turns out that it is a form of orbital surveillance device that we only found because it malfunctioned."

"Oh great," groaned Amethyst, "Now those Diamond creeps are spying on us?"

"And, according to the core geode, not just us. The data shows that it is one of forty that were sent from a nearby colony."

"And if the one we have here is broken…" dreaded Lapis.

"That means we've got 39 more of those things to take care of!" assured Bismuth, "But luckily, Peri has a solution for that."

"All of these satellites are linked by a data network not unlike your Internet. I've done some programming to turn the device in our possession into a tracker for the others."

"Great!" said Cinnabar, "Now all we have to do is smash them up so let's get in our spaceship and head out!"

"If we're going to do this, we're going to need a formal plan," said Garnet.

"True," agreed the inventor, "I've taken the liberty of printing out the last known coordinates of all the satellites and configuring them to read in Earth's latitudinal and longitudinal standards."

She then held up a printout which Pearl, having the most experience with traditional map coordinates, took and quickly began running the numbers through her head.

"So, where's the nearest satellite?" asked Connie.

"Positioned about… three hundred miles from here."

"What?" asked Steven, "Wouldn't they all be aimed at us?"

"From analyzing the technology," added Peridot, "The satellite can record footage or take a still photograph of any point within a ten-mile diameter from a point set to its targeting system. That means whatever they're aiming at, it's still far away from us."

"I mean, they know exactly where we are from the two different attacks they've launched here," commented Pearl, "But I'd have to cross-reference these with a map to understand what exactly they are looking at."

"Pearl, get to work on that ASAP," said Garnet, "Topaz, have the ship ready to depart as soon as Pearl is ready. Peridot, keep working on that data and see if you can pull anything else out of it."

"And what about the rest of us?" asked Steven.

"Not much else we can do. We need to take those satellites down, but I wouldn't put it past the Diamonds to have another plan like they did with the abduction plot. In case they try anything here while the ship is gone, the rest of us need to stick together."

A quiet dread took over as the selected gems followed Garnet's orders while the others stood ready for the unexpected. Bismuth was the antsiest of the bunch and soon decided she needed to unwind and headed for the Warp Pad.

"Where are you going?" asked Steven, catching Connie's attention.

"I'm just gonna take a quick trip to my old forge. Bring back a couple things in case things get hairy."

"Not a bad idea," approved Garnet, "You never know when we might need a little extra artillery. But…"

"But what?"

"Only five things."

"Aw, that's not fair! All my masterpieces deserve a moment to shine!"

"Maybe, and your handiwork is always impressive, but we only have so much room here. I don't need Steven tripping on a battle axe on a midnight trip to the bathroom."

"Oh fine…" pouted the blacksmith.

"Can I come?" asked Steven.

"May I as well?" joined Connie, "All this standing around has me twitching like crazy."

"Sure," agreed Bismuth, "I'm always happy to show off my collection."

The three quickly warped into Bismuth's old mountainside forge. Even now when she did have an in-house workshop with the others, she still came here to do her work out of nostalgia. Given that she could easily bring them into the temple now. It, admittedly, was also a reminder of a certain other project she made once, and it was a good reminder that she would sometimes need to reign in her creativity and anger.

It was not long before the trio made it into the cave entrance to the blacksmith's private workshop… and found that someone was already in there.

"HEY!" roared Bismuth, feeling especially violated, "What do you clods think you're doing here?!"

"Stealing your weapons!" bragged a ruby trying to crack open a chest filled with gem weapon enhancements, but she was quickly stopped when a thrown crystalline sword nearly shanked her.

"You get one chance," said Steven while readying his shield, "Get out now and drop everything or we have to fight you."

A jasper outfitted with a visor, the apparent leader of the dozen gems storming the place, simply grinned as she summoned a flat-bladed execution sword. That was all the answer Bismuth needed before charging in with her hands shapeshifted into sword blades of her own to charge and start hacking away. Steven and Connie quickly joined the fray as each were swarmed by several smaller gems.

Steven was the prime target of the two, still seen as the legendary Rose Quartz, and quickly found himself stuck in a bubble with half a dozen angry fire-throwing rubies demanding his hide. They assumed they had him cornered, but they could not have been more wrong as the hybrid suddenly burst his shield and sent one flying into the wall behind her with a left hook. The other five all spread out and he summoned his usual shield to prepare for whatever they wanted to throw at him.

Connie had three of the pint-sized powerhouses to deal with. While she nearly caught one by surprise, they seemed to have wised up and were trying to rush her. After a few close calls, she decided to take them surprise by changing into her crystal form. The trio of attackers all stood back at the sight of girl's strange power, but that did not stop them from coming at her again. Connie's body sprouted three floating swords from her back and the girl had little choice to see what her new form could do.

While Bismuth also had three to deal with, she had gotten the lead jasper and two unruly amethysts who immediately went after her being the biggest threat. Although outnumbered, she made up for the difference in ferocity. Seeing her private sanctuary broken into and them trying to steal her handmade works of art brought out the same Bismuth that Rose had to control at times. With no one to stop her, Bismuth held nothing back as she fought as dirty as possible from using one amethyst as a meat shield for her compatriot to stealing sword straight out of the jasper's hand and going straight for her gem with it.

By the time the dust cleared, all twelve gems had been dealt with but the blacksmith wanted to be absolutely sure. She activated the secret lock that reveals the other half of her workshop and checked every square inch of the lava-filled basement for any sign of the invaders. It was only when the coast was clear that she returned to where Steven and Connie were finished bubbling the hostile Homeworld forces.

"Guys, go back and tell them about what's happened here," insisted Bismuth, "I'm gonna stay here and work off some steam."

"You sure?" asked Steven.

"Trust me, I don't think I'll be doing much good just bottling all this up. It's better for me to put it towards something positive."

When the teens returned, they saw the group was alarmed at seeing Bismuth nowhere in sight. It only took a few seconds for the two to explain, but several minutes for the Crystal Gems to process it.

"They just… attacked us," said a terrified Lapis, "And we wouldn't have known if you three weren't there. Guys… What do we do?"

"I don't think this will surprise anyone," said Pearl as she peered over several maps and tablets on the kitchen island, "But the coordinates for one of the satellites is positioned right above the volcano where the forge is located."

"Have you managed to locate any other definitive points?" asked Adamite.

"Unfortunately, yes. Rose's Armory, the Lunar Sea Spire, the Sky Arena, the Galaxy Warp, the former Communication Hub, and many other places we've been to or continue to use. It's obvious they're trying to monitor us from every possible angle for possible intelligence."

"Then we need to get up there and shoot down those things!" yelled Amethyst, "I don't want those creeps watching the planet 24/7!"

"Agreed," said Peridot, "And thankfully now we have the technology to do it with. Those satellites aren't equipped with any weapons systems or shielding as far as I could tell."

"Then we've got nothing to lose!" said Topaz, "The ship is primed, and my crew is ready. We can leave whenever we want."

"Good to hear," approved Garnet, "Everyone, get ready for a mission into the skies. Before we go, though, there's one thing I need to take care of. And Steven, I'll need your help with it."

"Sure! What are we doing?" asked the boy as Garnet walked towards the warp pad.

"You'll see soon enough."

The two flashed away, but Steven was confused when he saw they were right back at Bismuth's forge. The fusion pressed on as she went inside and began stomping on the floor as hard as she could.

"Bismuth, get out here! We need you for a mission."

A panel soon rose out of the ground with the blacksmith holding a piece of rolled-up parchment in her hand. Steven was more focused on her face and how irate she still appeared.

"Garnet, can you guys handle this one? I've got something really important here and-"

"Out of the question. I know what you're doing and I'm not falling for it."

"Wha? What's going on?" said Steven, now completely lost, "What's the big problem? I thought Bismuth was just angry that those gems came into her place to steal stuff."

"Exactly!" assured the dreadlocked gem, "And if you all need me, give me five minutes and I can finish my work. Then I'll be set to go do my Bismuth!"

"Nice try," said Garnet, crossing her arms, "But you're not fooling me."

"Garnet, calm down!" tried Steven, "What's got you mad?"

"Go on," she said to Bismuth, "Show him."

Steven was about to demand answers, but he noticed Bismuth backing away from the two. She was clutching the paper in her hand like her life depended on it and tried to hop on the elevator back down to the lower level. She did not make it five steps before Garnet froze her feet to the ground and held out her arm.

"Show Steven that paper, Bismuth, or I'm doing it for you!"

Now looking like a cornered animal, the blacksmith had no choice but to drop the paper and let a very intrigued Steven pick it up. It turns out it was a set of blueprints for one of Bismuth's weapons and while the boy was no expert on the components or how the schematics worked, he recognized the final product.

"The Breaking Point?!" he shouted, looking half ready to rip the paper to shreds, "What are you doing with this?! Why do you even have this?!"

"Steven… I… I'm sorry…" she choked, "I didn't want it to come to this…"

"It doesn't have to," interrupted Garnet, "And yet here we are. Because you chose to bring it to this point."

"Can you blame me, Garnet? Those clods broke into my forge, planning to make off with my hard work, and I wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for dumb luck. It's obvious Homeworld isn't going to play fair here."

"We all know that, Bismuth, but that doesn't change that what you're thinking is wrong. We don't have to stoop the levels of shattering our opponents just to win."

"Really? That's what they did to us…"

"Bismuth?" said Steven trying to cut her off, but the gem was having none of it.

"The Diamonds stole _all _of the gems from the Burning Room and sent them into a sun. That was where every other Crystal Gem was… and now they're ashes!"

"Bismuth, I understand," said Garnet, "And we won't let them get away with that. Those were my friends, too."

"Then why are you stopping me?! Those were our comrades, Garnet, and now they're stardust floating around in space!"

"Rose wouldn't want you to-"

"Rose. Isn't. HERE! And don't you dare repeat that with me because trust me, I remember the last time I had this conversation with her."

"Then you know what will happen if you keep this up."

The air was dead silent as the two gems stared at each other, each one daring the other to try something, until Steven finally spoke up.

"Bismuth, I get it," he said, startling the larger alien, "It hurts seeing someone you love die. And it's even worse when there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"Kid… Don't go there. You don't know what it's like and-"

"Yes, I do! I've done it, remember?"

Bismuth paled as she very quickly remembered the Jasper Incident. Seeing Steven admit to it so openly, though, sent a chill through her.

"And at first…" he continued, "I felt happy. Shattering another gem… made me feel better. And then I realized what I'd done. I remember every second of it even if it was almost a month ago."

He stepped closer to her as his mind flashed back to that moment. "When I looked down at my hand after ending Jasper, I couldn't recognize it at first. Then it sank in. Jasper is dead because of me, regardless of what she did, and nothing can ever bring her back. I couldn't look at myself for days. You saw me get depressed, Bismuth. Is that what you want to be when you finally finish and use that weapon?"

Both gems were stunned at what they were seeing. Bismuth was shaking from head to toe and even Garnet felt like she could barely recognize the boy in front of her.

"If you want to take your fighting that far, be prepared for the consequences. After all, Homeworld will just take that as a sign to escalate things further. They already went after all of Beach City so what's next? The entire country? All of Earth? Maybe they'll just go after the whole solar system? And all the while, the face of your victim is in your mind even when you sleep. There was even once or twice… where I wondered if I deserved to wake up."

The two gems gasped in unison. Steven barely reacted outside of looking Bismuth in the eye and breaking the ice blocks around her feet with a kick.

"If you make the Breaking Point and use it, you will never go back. And since you live forever, you live with your guilt forever. Can you do it? Do you _want _to live like that?"

Having been trembling for the past several minutes, Bismuth finally lost it and crumbled to her knees as the waterworks started and her emotions poured out. Steven simply embraced the sobbing gem in a hug, telling her it was okay to let out all this bottled-up pain and sadness. Garnet, having expected this to go very differently, was surprised but thought this was for the best. After a few minutes of letting her emotions out, Bismuth stood up and picked up the blueprints again.

"Guys… I can't tell you how sorry I am. I guess I forgot I'm not the only Crystal Gem."

"Mistakes happen," assured Garnet, "But the important thing is we grow past them. Now then, those papers."

The blacksmith nodded and wordlessly chucked the plans into one of the lava pools around them, all three feeling at ease seeing the last evidence of that damned weapon turn to ash. Soon enough all three headed back to the temple ready to focus on their newest mission.

* * *

Yellow Diamond was given the task of surveying all of the spy satellites White had set up to monitor the Earth. And so far, the job was boring her to tears as she looked at all forty feeds at once and saw absolutely nothing happening. Each location was as desolate as the last with no sign of any activity. That all changed when Yellow Pearl walked in.

"My Diamond," she greeted with her usual salute, "I have some potentially interesting information from Earth."

"Hm?" asked the Diamond, barely even paying attention.

"Blue Diamond sent a small squadron to infiltrate a Crystal Gem location and has found something you might like to see."

Shaken from her boredom hearing that Blue would launch any kind of offensive, Yellow looked down and saw her servant opening up a holo-screen with some footage of Rose Quartz and two of her soldiers talking.

"The gems were defeated," explained the pearl, "But the lead jasper managed to plant the surveillance devices as planned."

She then began editing the footage to focus on a paper that "Rose Quartz" was holding in the direction of one of the cameras. Yellow immediately noticed it was a set of blueprints for a new weapon and her genius mind began buzzing with possibilities.

"Very interesting design," approved the matriarch, "Pearl, report to Blue that I am very pleased with her findings. I'll have my technicians get to work adapting this design. That will be all."

**And so with that milestone out of the way, it's time for the latest mission to begin. Tune in next time for a high-flying adventure!**

**Thank you all so much for reading once again! I never imagined my little passion project would be going to nearly this long but it's amazing to see how many people have enjoyed it! As usual, please feel free to leave a review with your thoughts and here's to reaching chapter 100.**


	51. Brookite

**And thanks to my anniversary chapter being held off for the special date, this chapter is now done already! It's time for the Crystal Gem's mission to bring them face-to-face with a new foe!**

With Bismuth brought back with the others, all of the Crystal Gems piled into the Sun Incinerator in order to head out in order to take care of the satellites over the Earth. The only exceptions were Adamite and Cinnabar who Garnet decided would be the two best candidates to stay behind in case Homeworld tried something while they were gone. Adamite's earthbending would be useless in any midair fight and Cinnabar still was not the best at avoiding collateral damage.

"Don't worry!" assured the latter, "We won't burn the house down! Again."

"And I can assure that," said the former with more confidence, "If she misbehaves, she's getting buried in the sand until you get back."

"Good to know," said Garnet over her communicator while Topaz ran the final checks for lift-off.

"Alright everyone, strap in!" said Rhodonite as she entered her hands into the plasma screen that acted as the control console. A series of chairs emerged from under floor behind Topaz's seat at the helm with safety belts the shoulder of each seat. All of these new features made to accommodate more passengers were found by Peridot after several late nights of monkeying around with the controls.

Soon, the Sun Incinerator lifted off of the sands and blasted off into the wide blue sky. As they flew, Rutile was acting as the main navigator which meant overlaying the maps Pearl provided with the data Peridot got from the downed satellite to find the others. Thankfully, having two heads really was better than one in this case. While the gem reported that the nearest satellite was truly hundreds of miles away, the ship reached it in a few minutes.

"Target is in sight," reported the twins.

"Rhodonite, fire the nova blasters as soon as you get a hit," ordered Topaz.

"Yes Captain," agreed the fusion immediately. Soon a distant speck could be made out ahead of the ship and it was not long before the gem brought up the targeting reticle. A few seconds later she got a lock on the faraway orb and it was blown to oblivion.

"One satellite down!" cheered Padparadscha.

"Next target is approximately seventy miles due east," reported Rutile.

For the next several minutes, the mission went swimmingly as the crew of the ship operated like a well-oiled machine. The other Crystal Gems merely sat back and watched as the five-man team went from location to location and took down ten satellites with no issue.

"Man, easiest job ever!" bragged Amethyst as she watched the show, "We'll be done by lunchtime!"

"Don't get arrogant," warned Bismuth, "After that little raid Homeworld pulled on my forge, who know what they might pull?"

"Maybe," said Lapis, "But these guys have it all handled. I thought I might be needed because I'm the only one of us that can fly solo."

"It's a possibility," said Garnet, "But I'm impressed how well Topaz is handling this."

"Thanks!" said the captain, "This job has really built my confidence. Turns out I love piloting when I don't have some little clod nagging at me all day."

While Steven was delighted to see Topaz find her place after seeing how miserable she used to be, he secretly agreed with Bismuth and thought there was more on the way. He may not have seen the Diamonds for long, but he doubted they would idly let the Crystal Gems destroy any sort of spy network.

His prediction sadly came true when, just after taking down satellite number fifteen, a sudden bout of turbulence rocked the ship and brought everyone to attention.

"Fluorite, any problems with the propulsion systems?" asked Topaz automatically as another wave jostled the vessel.

"No Captain…" said the engineer from below, "But the shields are holding."

"I can't find the attacking craft!" said Rhodonite, "They must have some sort of cloaking device!"

"I've never seen a Homeworld ship with full-fledged invisibility," informed Peridot from her seat, "Stealth is usually not their forte with spaceship design."

A third hit to the ship caused many of the passengers to yell in alarm, but Topaz forced herself to remain calm and analyze the situation. None of their systems seem to be malfunctioning, but there was no sign of any attackers and the weather was still perfect, so it was not any sort of meteorological threat.

"An intruder is trying to attack the ships!" warned Padparadscha, much to everyone's confusion. The word intruder almost made it sound like a single person was trying to stop them, but that turned out to be accurate when Rutile spoke up.

"Topaz, I think I spotted something flying past our east flank!" said the left head.

"It looked way too small to be a fighter!" said the right head.

The captain quickly had Rhodonite steer them eastward and soon they found a strange sight out of the viewport. A small rippling area about ten feet from the ship could just barely be made out and soon it rippled away to reveal a brown-colored gem somehow flying on level with the ship.

"Uh oh," said Amethyst, "Looks like they finally made another flying one…"

"Rutile, bring up the communication channels," said Topaz, still keeping her demeanor, "If that's a Homeworld gem, she should be using a known frequency."

The twins complied and soon a voice was coming in loud and clear through the sound system. "Greetings, interlopers," said a suave feminine voice, "Do I have your attention now?"

"You do. This is Captain Topaz speaking, pilot of the Sun Incinerator and member of the Crystal Gems. Who are you and what do you want?"

"Permission to come aboard your vessel, for one. I prefer to have these conversations on solid ground."

Topaz had Rutile cut the audio before turning and facing the other Crystal Gems. "Guys, what do you all think? This may be my ship, but I don't want to endanger any of you."

"We understand," said Pearl, "And as much as I hate to entertain the idea, it might be best to hear her out in person."

"WHAT?!" shouted Amethyst, "I'm no strategist, but why would we want some crazy spy gem on our ship instead of just blasting it?!"

"Because, and this is just a hunch, we can't attack her," said Garnet, "Based on what Padparadscha said, she's the one attacking the ship herself. She must possess some impressive power to rock a ship like this singlehandedly."

"And with the ability to be totally invisible, I'm betting the only reason she wants to talk is because she knows she can win," added Bismuth, scowling at the gem outside.

Soon Garnet gave the resident captain the go-ahead and the other gem entered from the airlock opening out of the ceiling. Once she floated into view, the others all got a solid look at the baron. She stood as tall as Pearl with a similar lithe figure to Cinnabar that made her look lithe but still strong. Her body was light tan color with her darker brown hair tied into a single braid that stopped at her neckline. Her gem was not visible on her body thanks to the outfit she was sporting – an odd light grey full-body suit that almost looked like it was made of plasma that left only her hands, feet and head exposed. The new gem's immediately fell upon Steven.

"Ah, you must be Rose Quartz," she said amicably, "The reports described your new form, though it also read you go by the alias of 'Steven?'"

"Y-Yeah…" said the boy, stupefied to hear an enemy gem actually say his proper name.

"And you must be her associates. I must admit, I did not expect to see such a diverse bunch."

"Your 'reports' didn't say anything about us?" groused Lapis.

"No, they mentioned you in less detail, but I'm more surprised by the presence of your pearl."

The swordswoman crossed her arms and glared at the new arrival, expecting another spiel about her "proper place." Instead, the gem said the last thing she expected.

"A shame she is on the wrong side of this conflict. I would have preferred you as a work of art to admire from afar."

The whole ship went dead silent as the new arrival walked towards Pearl and seemed to stare at her face. Her eyes were half-lidded and her tone sounded so genuine they figured she was either a master liar or dead serious.

"Those features, that dapper attire, and that spark glowing in your eyes. I can see how one day I'd sweep you off your feet and take you to a secluded mine where we could confess our romantic desires…"

"Enough flattery," insisted Topaz, trying to bring attention away from a mortified Pearl, "Now that you're on my ship, I demand to know your identity."

"Brookite," she said simply, "And, might I say Captain Topaz, I'm impressed with the operation you run."

"Really?" said the fusion, both her eyebrows raised.

"Indeed. To keep such a marvelous piece of engineering in flawless shape so many cycles after being commandeered takes commendable effort. My compliments to your work effort!"

"Okay, stop that!" said a completely done Amethyst, "Drop the nicey-nice act already! You're the bad guy, we're the good guys, let's get to the insults and fighting already!"

"My apologies," said Brookite sincerely, "If that is what you wish…"

Without even looking, she held out her left hand and suddenly it was consumed by the rest of her semiliquid suit and a beam of light erupted from her palm. It blasted Topaz back into her chair where she sat briefly stunned.

"…Then I will comply."

The other Crystal Gems were all on guard as she resumed her polite demeanor instantly. Even seeing all of their weapons, Brookite did not seem the least bit bothered.

"W-What are you?!" asked Steven from behind his shield, "How'd you do that?"

"In all honesty, that attack was actually the work of this elite piece of hardware I am wearing. This is an immensely rare espionage suit equipped with repulsor blasters, a self-contained cloaking device and mineral enhancers designed to greatly raise my natural strength and stamina."

"So that's how you were attacking the ship!" exclaimed Peridot.

"Indeed. I was assigned a task to guard these satellites and to immediately attack any imminent threat. While I'm disappointed to have lost many of my objectives already, I believe apprehending you will assuage the Diamonds."

Brookite's demeanor suddenly changed as the suit suddenly engulfed all of her and soon she began to fade out of sight. In her last visible moments, her confident smile was replaced by a hard grimace as she looked at the seven Crystal Gems and gave them a warning.

"Do not take any of this personally. This is merely business."

Steven put a bubble around himself as Brookite began an invisible assault on the team and quickly found he was the only one who got spared. Peridot was thrown into the wall of the ship hard enough to leave an imprint of her body, Pearl and two of her clones were beaten down in rapid succession, Amethyst was blasted into unconsciousness from behind, Lapis got knocked into the ceiling and soon fell unconscious and even Bismuth was pummeled into submission so fast even she has no idea what happened.

After thirty seconds, the only ones still standing were a panting Garnet and a thoroughly stunned Steven. Brookite then became visible again in front of the pair with a look of grudging respect.

"Quite impressive defenses you have there Steven," she said, "And that fusion of your has some remarkable reflexes to dodge everything I threw at her.

"Not quite… Everything…" admitted Garnet, "I got one of those repulsor blasts to the chest and… it really stings."

"An astute observation. These are designed to poof gems, but I figured I would not need them on the highest setting to defeat you. At this level, that blast should still be quite painful."

"Guys, get up!" urged Steven. He was only meant by pained groans from whoever was still conscious and dead silence from everyone else.

"I'm afraid your rebellion ends here, Steven," said Brookite grimly, almost sounding disappointed, "It's almost a shame to see it end so easily after all the buildup I heard from my superiors but alas I have a duty to perform."

She stepped forward but was suddenly stopped when a pugil stick swung right towards her head. She blocked the blow with her hand, much to the alarm of Topaz.

"A valiant effort," she commended the captain, "But you lack the power to overcome me."

"Overcome this!" shouted Rhodonite as she pulled out her sabre and charged with everything she had into a single thrust. A lot of good it did her, though, since she caught the blade with two outstretched fingers.

"Hmm… You have a penchant for finding the most bizarre associates," commented the gem nonchalantly, "A shame how _ineffective _they are."

She threw off the two pilots with a blast each and sent them both sprawling to the floor before making her way towards Steven. The boy felt completely trapped between a rock and a hard place. If he dispelled his bubble, he figured she might actually be strong enough to clobber him into submission and whisk him away to who knows where. If he kept it up, she would just wail on him long to break him down and then he would be taken anyways.

"Steven… Put that barrier down or I'll have to do it. You've seen the strength I have with this suit."

"Y-Yeah? I once fell out of a spaceship and this bubble survived!"

"Hm? An interesting challenge…"

"Wait, what?"

"Let's see how many it punches it takes to equal atmospheric reentry."

Steven braced himself for impact, trying to somehow will his bubble to get stronger, as Brookite wound up a punch. Right before it could land, though, someone got her attention.

"Get out," said Lapis, her eyes overshadowed by her hair as she held onto Brookite's shoulder with her hand.

"Weren't you unconscious?" asked the intruder, preparing to swat her aside until one of Lapis' water wings emerged as a much larger hand and grabbed her by the head.

"Yes, I was. Want to try it yourself?" She then flung Brookite out of the ship's viewport, shattering the glass-like substance and quickly jumping out after her.

The others all looked on in shock as they watched the aquatic gem freefall out of sight after the foe. Topaz quickly took hold of the console herself and, after a few button presses, managed to activate the self-repair on the viewport.

"What do we do now?!" said Peridot, "We can't just let Lapis fight that dynamo alone!"

"But the ship's not powerful enough to stop it," said Rutile, "So what else is there?"

"We should at least keep an eye on them," said Garnet, "If we see an opening to attack, we take it and then get Lapis back here as soon as possible."

* * *

Brookite activated the propulsors on her feet to reenable her flight, even if it took her falling almost a mile to do it. The shock of Lapis' sudden recovery, plus the pain of being thrown out of the ship's cockpit, dulled her focus but only for a moment. She was a professional first and foremost and it would take more than one ambush to make her lose her senses.

What might stop her was Lapis Lazuli zooming down at her at maximum speed and grabbing her fast enough that she could not manipulate her suit in any way and slamming her into the ocean with enough velocity to make hundred-foot tall waves ripple from the impact.

When she finally propelled herself out of the ocean, Brookite found the blue gem glaring daggers at her and with her wings still out.

"Holding a grudge, are we?" the professional asked. Her new opponent did not appreciate that as she crossed her arms and the water began to ripple around her.

"You attack me, my friends, our spaceship and you act like it's no big deal," Lapis replied angrily, "Who do you think you are?"

"As I said, I'm simply conducting business. Taking it personally is your own fault."

"How else can I take it?! Steven and the other Crystal Gems are my friends! We care about the Earth, so we don't want the Diamonds watching it every day!"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why does that motivate you?" asked Brookite curiously, "Why this irrational hatred of Diamonds?"

"Why do you care? What happened to being all business?"

"So, you don't have an answer?"

"Well…" She was contemplating her words when Brookite suddenly rushed forward and tackled Lapis with enough force to send them flying past miles of open sea. It only stopped when the plasma-suited gem threw her off to the side like a ragdoll and watched in amusement as she rolled head-over-heels across the ocean.

"That's why I asked," Brookite finished with a shout, "To distract you. A true gem knows to never let her guard down!"

She wondered if the fight was over already when a massive watery hand reached out to try and restrain her. Brookite only just managed to fly away but suddenly three even larger ones emerged around her and left her surrounded. Lapis then flew out of the center of the ring of arms like a rocket and smashed her fist into the operative's stunned face.

As she flew right into one of the aquatic arms, Lapis held out her own hand and the massive replica followed. It swatted Brookite to the side like an insect right into another hand which did the same. Back and forth she went like a pinball until Lapis herself swooped in and slammed both her feet and sent Brookite plummeting back into the ocean.

"Sorry," she said sarcastically, "Could you give me advice about my guard again?"

For a brief moment as she surfaced, Lapis could see Brookite's face was the picture of rage. She looked half ready to smash her to pieces there, but soon her usual calm yet smug demeanor returned. She then raised one of her arms and soon it was consumed by plasma as an energy blast blew one of the water arms apart.

"You want my advice?" she then said, "Give up before I destroy you."

Lapis was shaken but refused to back down again. She had the other three water arms all move to squash Brookite, but soon they were all obliterated by dual repulsor blasts. The Crystal Gem tried to think of a counterattack, but Brookite barely gave her moment before grabbing her mid-flight by the neck and soaring to a nearby desolate island before smashing her into the rock that made up the top of a submerged mountain. Lapis tried getting up but Brookite revealed that her feet were not just for flying. The plasma suit covered them as well and she sent a concentrated blast right at her while she was still down.

Once the onslaught was done, Lapis was barely hanging on to consciousness again as Brookite floated above her with a clear air of superiority.

"Finished already?" she asked, "I'd have thought a gem of your abilities would provide more of a challenge."

"Y-You… Know about me?"

"You're a wanted criminal on Homeworld. White Diamond personally made dossiers for all of Rose Quartz's subordinates and released them to the public. I also happen to know you're the last member of your particular caste since terraforming is now automized."

"Congrats, you have my trading card. What's your point?"

"Getting cocky, aren't you?" Brookite grabbed Lapis by the throat as her voice lowered. "You must be confident in order to insult White Diamond to her face. To the point of feeling suicidal, I'd say."

The blue flyer tried to say her piece, but Brookite tightened her grip as she leveled a repulsor right at her face. "And with those satellites still in orbit, I believe the grand matriarch will award me handsomely if I bring you back as a prisoner of war…"

Lapis' mind ran at a million miles a second, desperately trying to think of a way out. She was surrounded by her element, but the pain gripping her throat was worsened by this new information. White Diamond not only wanted to end the Crystal Gems, but she also took her insult personally. She wanted to summon a massive wave to free herself and yet it felt hard just to think. All her power and she felt completely helps.

"No final retort?" taunted Brookite, "A pity, but that's the choices you made."

Brookite opened her palm and a menacing glow formed. The blast was about to finish her when out of nowhere the Sun Incinerator roared into view from the horizon and fired its blasters right into Brookite, sending her flying for miles.

"What the?!" Lapis exclaimed, her mind still reeling from the beating she endured.

"Lapis, are you alright?" asked Steven, waving his hand out from the still-broken viewport as the ship floated in front of her. Behind him was Pearl, Peridot and Topaz all looking relieved to see their ambush had paid off. She was about to express her thanks when suddenly a sonic boom shook them out of their pleasantries. Brookite reappeared a few moments later with the same furious expression Lapis caught earlier now etched on her face.

"Very… Funny…" she muttered darkly, "But I think it's time I start using this suit's full power."

She then held out all her limbs and suddenly the plasma coating her body glowed brightly enough to blind all of the Crystal Gems. Once the light died down, Brookite regained her confident demeanor and held out both her hands.

"Now it's time to finally take that stolen ship out of commission!" she shouted gleefully before letting loose a pair of repulsor blasts that sent the ship spiraling end over end before crashing into the ocean.

"What did you do?!" Lapis demanded.

"I merely fried every circuit that ship had. Now I can simply perform my business at my leisure without that infernal piece of hardware interfering again."

Brookite then flew faster than Lapis could even blink and saw her appear right above the Crystal Gems as they floated to the water's surface while the Sun Incinerator sunk into the blue depths. With the others helpless to defend themselves, Brookite began a one-gem blitzkrieg that left her wincing and crying as each gem was quickly rendered unconscious from hundreds of blows apiece.

The only exception to this was Steven. He got to watch all of the other gems get pulverized while he tried to stay above water. He did also wonder if he should just use his bubble to sink to the bottom of the ocean to escape, but he had no idea if Brookite's suit could still function underwater. The best it would do is stall for time assuming he did not run out of air before Lapis could potentially retrieve him.

Even that option was gone, though, when Brookite hoisted him out of the water and into her clutches.

"Put him down," ordered Lapis.

"Hm?" she muttered.

"Put. Him. Down."

"Oh, you've come to care for your new master? Touching, but we both know that Steven here is too important to my mission to obey your request."

"That wasn't a request. Put him down right now before I shatter you."

"L-Lapis?!" exclaimed Steven, not liking how angry her tone was getting but Brookite laughed it off.

"You can't possibly shatter me! I've outclassed you and your entire band at every turn in this little encounter. Your ship is worthless, your partners are powerless to stop me and even your beloved leader proved to be a pushover! Then again, what else do you expect with an elite soldier such as myself versus a team of random unknown gems relying on stolen equipment and luck to survive?"

At first the waterbender seemed upset, but then she giggled at her words.

"What's so funny?"

"You Homeworld clods give us the same speech over and over again. Can't you think of anything else?"

"I can think of flying away with your precious Steven right now. With my cloaking device and speed, we could leave the planet's orbit and you would never find us."

"You won't do that. We may not have overpowered tech or an army, but us Crystal Gems have one advantage over you…"

"And that would be?"

With a flick of her finger, a watery chain shot up from the ocean and grabbed Brookite around her exposed foot.

"The element of surprise!" Lapis finished as she focused all of her hydrokinetic power on pulling Brookite as deep into the ocean as possible. She could feel her target going farther and farther into the black abyss of the deep sea, but it was not enough. She gave one final push and, knowing the Brookite was miles underwater, finally stopped. She made a square platform under Steven and lifted him out of the ocean.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"A little damp, but I'll live!"

Lapis then made a second platform to hoist up all of the unconscious Crystal Gems while she dug around the water to find the Sun Incinerator which sunk into the ocean thanks to Brookite's sneak attack. She quickly got all of the former Off-Colors, even Fluorite, and considered fishing up the ship itself, but decided the first priority would be flying everyone back home. Any damage could be fixed by Peridot, but the longer rest of the team stayed out here the more they were in danger.

She did not know how long she flew or, but on the trip back to the nearest dry land the other Crystal Gems slowly began to awaken.

"Oh, my aching head…" moaned Pearl, "What hit me?"

"An overconfident clod," said Lapis.

"Good job surprising her like that," commended Garnet, "I'm a lot of things, but an underwater fighter isn't one of them."

"Problem is," said Peridot, "Now we've got to repair the ship and somehow get rid of the rest of those satellites."

"I can still fly," assured Lapis, "Do you still have the info on where those things are?"

"I made a backup of all the data before we left."

"Then it'll take a little longer, but I can get it done. Then I can bring the ship in and you can work your techno magic to get it running again."

"Shouldn't be too much work as long as the chassis is still salvageable," said Bismuth encouragingly, "But Lapis, good work today. We'd all be driftwood right and Steven would be brought into court if it weren't for you."

Lapis' cheeks turned blue at the praise, but something still felt wrong to her. If there was one pro to her many terrible experiences, it gave her an excellent sense that something was about to go awry and that sense was screaming at her right now. She picked up the pace and soon a coastline appeared on the horizon.

"Amethyst," said Garnet, "Run ahead and scout the area. Once I have a general read on our location, I should be able to find the nearest warp pad to get us home."

"Roger that!" said the speedster before meeting her order. As she ran, though, she suddenly tripped and spent a whole minute flipping over like a tumbling rock before stopping in the water.

"Huh? What was-"

Before she could ponder what happened, a brown hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her underwater. Then a massive beam of light emerged from the water launching the Crystal Gem into the sky before she fell miles away.

The group watched in horror as Brookite rocketed to the surface. She was panting for breath and glaring at the group as Lapis froze in place.

"I'll admit… You almost had me," admitted the super soldier, "You sent me approximately four miles underwater. Combine the intense pressure of such a depth with rapidly shifting water currents plus your impressive flight velocity and I almost lost you! But alas, here we are. No ship, no assistance, no way you will pull off the same ruse twice."

She then burst into laughter before her face was set in a scowl and her plasma suit engulfed her entire body save for her head. Her body became a blinding beacon and she began furiously screaming at them.

"I am among the strongest forces Homeworld has! Do you have any idea the shame I'll carry when I write my report on this?! I may be a professional, but now I have a personal stake in this! I'll complete my task of eliminating the threats to the Diamonds' spy network and I'll take great joy in ERADICATING ALL OF YOU!"

Lapis summoned a massive block of water to appear between them and willed it to get thicker until it started pushing Brookite away. Soon they went from being only a few feet apart to having hundreds of feet of liquid between them. Soon Brookite fired her attack, a gigantic repulsor beam bigger than her entire body and quickly ate through Lapis' barrier. She focused all her effort on strengthening and willing it forward until soon the block was clashing with the massive energy wave. The Crystal Gems watched in awe as the clash continued for several tense minutes before they relented at the same time. Lapis nearly fainted from exhaustion as she dropped them all into the ocean while Brookite seemed equally tired.

"I… I can't believe it," Brookite stammered as she approached the Crystal Gems, "You stopped my unibeam. It… I nearly drained my suit's reserve power for that."

Lapis looked up to see her foe glancing down at her while she just tried to remain conscious.

"No quips now? A pity, actually. I haven't pushed like that in a long time. Oh well, I suppose it's back to my mission. I'll be taking Steven now and then-"

"No!" exclaimed the boy as he swam up to Lapis to try and shield her, "Lapis, fly away! Take the others and leave!"

"Steven, not this again!" chastised Pearl, "Stop playing the sacrifice card! It's obvious Brookite won't listen!"

"But-"

"Oh, the very beautiful pearl is right," confirmed Brookite, "At this point, it's apparent you're all threats to my objective so you must all be eliminated. Whether that involves capture or immediate elimination… That's the only quandary here."

Steven's whole world deflated. Even Jasper bought into that act and while that might have ended badly, it was still a chance! Now it was made plain and clear that there was no other option. Brookite was going to capture him, hurt everyone he cared about and then let the Diamonds have their way with the Earth.

"Steven…" pleaded Lapis, "I won't do it. I'm not leaving you."

"That's not an option and you know it," insisted Brookite, "I'll just pursue you if you try to escape."

"I don't care about that! I meant I'm not leaving Steven behind even if it meant losing you! He's done nothing but stand by me, help me and care about me even when no one else did."

She then lifted Steven up by his arms and held him in a hug. "And if you want to take him, you're gonna have to pry him away from me. I'm a Crystal Gem and I know the others will do the exact same thing if you try to hurt him or any of us."

"L-Lapis…" muttered Steven. He looked to see the other gems, while still nervous, were all smiling in support. Even with how grim the situation looked, they made it clear they would rather go down fighting than just let him play the martyr. Feeling touched, he returned he hug.

"Thank you…"

As they embraced, suddenly their bodies both began glowing. Everyone around them looked stunned until they saw the duo's gemstones begin swirling around as there bodies merged into one bright mass.

"No!" shouted Brookite, her composure cracking even more, "How are they fusing?! They barely touched each other! I won't let you do this!" She lifted her arm and planned to fire a repulsor at them, but a purple blur ran in from the distance and grabbed her by the leg with a whip.

"Not gonna happen, clod!" jeered Amethyst as she ran off with the Homeworld gem in tow at supersonic speed. Brookite managed to slip out after a few seconds, but by then she was dozens of miles away. She saw the distant light fade and flew back to find an entirely new gem waiting for her.

The new fusion was a few heads taller than Garnet, had sky blue skin and three arms with two right appendages compared to one left. Aside from the slightly muscular build, he had a lavender wet shirt dotted with white stars along with navy bell-bottom pants torn around the ankles and large sandals on his feet. His face had three eyes with one bright blue orb sitting above two black ones and a messy hair of hair the same color as his pants. The most striking feature, however, was the completely cool expression on his face.

"Hey," the new fusion said casually.

"What… What the… Who are you?!" demanded Brookite angrily.

"Moonstone."

"So now what?! You plan on fighting me?"

"Nah dude," he said plainly, "I plan on beating you."

**And now, since Turquoise went over so well, here's my take on a Steven/Lapis fusion with Moonstone! How will his fight with Brookite end? Tune in next time to find out! **

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	52. Moonstone

**Time for a fight between an Iron Man knockoff and a three-armed waterbender! **

**...**

**...**

**Have I ever mentioned I loooove writing for this show? Endless possibilities!**

The silence between the two sides was deafening. The other Crystal Gems gaped at how suddenly this new fusion appeared while Brookite looked offended before her expression turned to a condescending smirk.

"Really? Just like that?" she questioned, "You believe that you can beat me?"

"Dude, is your hearing bad?" Moonstone asked.

"No! I was just-"

"Actually, you don't have ears. How come gems don't have ears?"

"Intentional design choice," informed Peridot with a grin, clearly enjoying the show.

"Silence!" ordered Brookite, blasting Moonstone in the face with a repulsor. While the fusion was hit and send flying back, his foe was stopped when a water chain suddenly grabbed her by the neck and yanked her backwards.

As the two flew away from each other, Amethyst ran up to the Crystal Gems still on the platform Lapis made and planned to start running them back to shore now that Brookite was distracted. The only problem was the suited gem appearing before them in a flash.

"Where do you all think you're going?!" she yelled, subtly rubbing her neck from her surprise attack. She was interrupted, however, when Moonstone flew down from above and slammed Brookite into the ocean again. While she was down, he shaped the water around her into a box only barely bigger than the gem herself.

"There," the fusion sighed, "That ought to keep you chilled out down there for a little bit." He then turned his attention to the Crystal Gems.

"Now to get all of you home!" Moonstone proceeded to form a bubble large enough to hold all of the gems, meaning with Fluorite it had to be several hundred feet around.

"Which way was land again?" he asked Amethyst. She pointed west and with a simple push the bubble went rocketing off towards the coast with all of them in it.

"Phew, now they're all safe…" mumbled the new fusion to himself, "I know they wanna help, but I need to take this whack-job alone. I just hope I'm not making a big mistake here…"

Before he could ponder any further, Brookite came roaring out of the water again. Any pretense of being professional she had looked completely gone as she madly stared at the fusion in front of her.

"You… You're toying with me! Do you think you can win by just restraining me?!"

"No way, but I needed to get the other guys out of here first. Now that it's just us, I can go all-out."

"Please! As if you can stop me from accomplishing my mission!"

Moonstone did not wasting any time as he flew forward and smashed both his right hands into Brookite's face. He tried to follow up with a kick, but the other gem dodged and landed a punch straight to the fusion's navel. From there, they went into a frenzy of blows feeling up each other's defenses until suddenly Moonstone flew up and away from his opponent. Brookite stared at him for a moment before realizing something.

"You're wings… Where are they? That Lapis had wings deployed at all times when she was flying!"

"Hm?" he asked, "Oh, don't know. Guess I can just fly without 'em. I'm still kinda new at this."

The nonchalant tone in his voice made Brookite's temper flare up. She propelled herself up to his level and prepared to fire a point-blank repulsor blast but was stopped when two more water chains erupted from below and grabbed onto her legs. This time, though, she would not fall for the same trick. She used her other hand to blow the restraints away while still inching closer to Moonstone's face. What she did not see coming was a sky-blue shield appearing on the fusion's only left arm and swatting her away.

As Brookite was launched, Moonstone was not idle as he flung the shield towards his foe. As it flew, he willed water to surround the flying disc and soon had the edges sharpened so the shield was now a eight-feet wide aquatic buzz saw. When Brookite saw the disc heading at her, she assumed it was a blunt object and planned to stop it with her hands. It was only a split-second reaction after feeling her hands begin sliced apart by the blades that let her blast it apart with her repulsors instead of being sliced clean in half.

Brookite's hands may have been briefly mangled by the encounter, but they healed quickly as her core was still intact. With a renewed sense of anger, she flew back into the fray only to be stopped when several smaller tiles of water about the size of her head were flung at her. Some nimble flying let her dodge them, but soon they were coming at her from multiple angles. She was forced to stop and block the ones she could not dodge. While she managed to stop all of them through either punching, kicking or blasting them away, she could not stop Moonstone from soaring with a pair of gauntlets and smashing them into her. Rather than let her fly away this time, the fusion followed after Brookite and kept belting her with his armored fists even as she went underwater.

Farther and farther they sank into the depths until finally Brookite struck back. Her foot lashed out in a rising kick hard enough to send Moonstone flying clean past the ocean's surface. The fusion tried to prepare for the next attack, but something struck him in the side. When he turned, he saw nothing but air even as another blow hit him in the stomach. Soon he was being assaulted from every side by invisible blows which only stopped when he summoned a light purple bubble around his body.

Brookite then appeared out of thin air with some of her usual ego back. "So… You can't fight an opponent you can't see."

"And you can't stand the fact that I'm still here," taunted Moonstone back, "What happened to all the professional stuff?"

"Perhaps I got too riled up before, but rest assured I haven't forgotten about your friends."

Moonstone summoned a whip in each hand and became more serious himself. "You want them? You'll have to split me up and end us first."

He lashed both whips out at frightening speed, but Brookite flew backwards out of their range. He snapped them again and, much to her surprise, they began growing longer. Water was gather all around both weapons until his whips were almost a hundred feet long and yet he was still swinging them at nearly the same speed. After several seconds of being sliced and beaten by the massive weapons, she managed to catch them both in her hands. Brookite was about to counter when suddenly Moonstone flicked both his wrists and all the water the whips collected began peeling off the weapons and flying at her in two ever-growing blasts. Brookite raised her hands and managed to blast them apart, but the force of their explosion sent her flying.

It took several minutes, but soon the Crystal Gems did indeed find land. Their bubble transport quickly popped once it ran into a sand dune and left the group stranded on a beach.

"Alright then," said Garnet, not wanting to waste any time, "I recognize this place well enough. We're on the southeastern coast of the States. Terrain's a bit different, but there should be a warp pad not too far away from here."

"Um, Garnet?" asked Rhodonite, "I don't mean to question your leadership, but what about the Sun Incinerator?"

"Yeah! We can't leave such a valuable piece of technology behind!" affirmed Peridot, "I never even got to toggle with the weapons!"

"I'm sure Lapis can recover it once the fight is over," said the fusion, "Besides, I agree that it needs some form of upgrade. If one gem managed to take the ship down, we seriously need to consider some modifications."

While some of the gems began following Garnet as she headed inland, Pearl stared out into the ocean. Despite being hundreds of miles away, she could still swear she could feel Moonstone and Brookite duking it out.

"Hey," said Amethyst, breaking her friend's trance, "You know they've got this, right?"

"I realize that," answered Pearl, "But after everything I've seen, I know to never count anything as a certainty. Steven and Lapis are formidable on their own, but they're… inexperienced."

"Maybe, but that's not gonna help them. I wanna run back out there and help too."

"You think maybe Opal could turn the tide with them?"

"As tempting as that suggestion is," said Garnet walking up to them, "We need to leave it to them. We've put all this time into training Steven and Lapis to a lesser extent. It's time to do the hardest part for any teacher: letting the students go."

Both of the other gems wanted to argue, but they both worked alongside Garnet long enough to know she was right. As new as Moonstone was, they had to leave the work to him for now. Instead they focused on finding their way home and regrouping so that when, not if, Moonstone succeeded there would have to be a plan to move forward.

While the Crystal Gems made their way back home, the maritime battle between two flying foes continued. Both sides wasted no time flying straight at each other and grappling with each other. This was all a ploy by Moonstone to send several watery knives into Brookite's back, but the Homeworld super soldier turned around just enough so the fusion had to cancel his own attack lest he get impaled.

Both gems broke apart from each other again before Brookite went for a stealth attack again. She grinned as she rippled into invisibility right in front of the fusion before he suddenly flew away. The professional thought Moonstone was trying to outmaneuver her, so she arced in midair and came at him again. She nailed a fist into his shoulder, but suddenly thousands of tiny saltwater droplets flew up from beneath them. Moonstone flew away again with the droplets surrounding his body, keeping Brookite tense for some sort of counterattack. Instead he simply flew in random patterns away from her. She tried coming at him again, this time from below, but somehow, he caught her fist and quickly fired all the droplets around as if they were liquid bullets.

As Brookite reappeared while being blown back by the sudden attack, her mind was blown. "How?! How could you possibly see through my suit's stealth cloak?"

Rather than answer, Moonstone just laughed in her face before summoning a spear in his left hand and a pair of gauntlets on his right hands. The fusion flew forward and tried to stab Brookite. When she dodged, he tried punching her with both armored hands in the same movement. With a newfound sense of grace, the fusion was on the attack and only stopped when a point-blank repulsor blast to the torso ended his deadly dance.

Their stalemate went on longer than any of them could count. Minutes passed as each of them went at it again and again with Moonstone's versatility matching Brookite's highly honed technology until finally the two began to get exhausted. They floated apart from each other, panting but no less willing to fight. They said nothing for several moments until the Homeworld gem could not take it anymore.

"This… This can't be happening. You've stood up to everything! What are you?"

"Huh?" replied Moonstone, "I'm… just me."

"That's not an answer! Your cunning, your drive, your raw power… It matches mine."

"Thanks… I guess."

"You 'guess?!' I am-"

"Some elite gem whose probably killed a whole bunch of innocents because White Diamond told you to, yadda yadda yadda, I get it. Would you mind… just shutting up? Please?"

And that was it. Brookite's composure had been getting more and more frayed as the fight went on and that was now approaching half and hour. Her professionalism was her entire persona, that of a refined operative above the billions of gems in service to the Great Diamond Authority. While there were no other indispensable gems aside from the three matriarchs, she was the closest exception. That composure that made her who she was had finally broken. She looked down for a few moments before looking at Moonstone again and laughing.

"Fine… I'll be quiet. Soon the only thing you'll be hearing is your own screams…"

Brookite vanished again, prompting Moonstone to pull the droplet maneuver again. Before he could even do that, though, he was sent flying into the sky and then sent rocketing back down almost as fast from a pair of unseen blows.

He looked up to see his attacker but saw nothing but air. And then he could not see anything clearly as he was blasted to the side. When he finally came to a stop, he finally saw Brookite clearly and noticed that her plasma suit had changed from silver to gold.

"This… Is me using the suit to its fullest capabilities," she chuckled insanely, "I hope you love this ocean because your shards are going to be buried at the bottom of it!"

Moonstone just barely managed to dodge as she raced in and tried to bowl him over. Even as she missed, the force of her flying by nearly sent the fusion sprawling. That left him wide open as Brookite tried blasting him in the back. A water wall appeared between the gems out of reflex, but it was blown clean away by the attack and soon the three-armed gem was flying against his will yet again.

"O-okay…" he stammered to no one, "This is bad. I need to stop this but how…"

"YOU WON'T!" answered Brookite from a few inches in front of his face before kicking him hard enough to leave an imprint of her foot on his stomach. The fusion yelled in pain as he felt the pale blue gem in his navel shudder from the attack while rocketing into the sky. She tried attacking him from behind again, but this time he managed to stop her by turning and blocking. It still felt like trying to stop a falling meteor, but he managed to hold his own long enough to speak.

"Your suit… How'd it get this stupidly powerful?! And why-"

"Didn't I use it from the start? Because it has one little drawback: it's tapping into the light of my gem."

"WHAT?!" He was so surprised that he completely let go and left himself open to Brookite literally pounding him back down to Earth.

"You're the first one who's ever made me use this suit to its fullest and it makes me incensed! I am among the most privileged servants of the Diamonds! I completely every mission flawlessly! Now why don't you make like a nice little assignment and LET ME FINISH YOU!"

She roared the last few words while charging up another unibeam. This one made her body glow like a miniature sun that promised to wipe Moonstone off the planet. The fusion crumpled to his knees on the water, a sense of dread overwhelming him as he began talking to himself.

"I… I can't do it! I'm still not enough!"

"Don't talk that way! We can still salvage this!"

"How?! She just said she's willing to die for this!"

"I know… And it's so sad…"

"What are you talking about? I don't need to be going loco now!"

"All the gems on Homeworld… They're all just slaves."

Brookite was completely unaware of the fusion's one-person conversation. Instead she laughed as she felt power like never before course through her as her blast neared its completion. Any second now she was blow those two away and finally have her mission fulfilled. She was about to fire when suddenly Brookite stood up.

"I'm sorry," he said morosely, "I want to help you, but I can't."

"What are you babbling about?!" she asked, "Is that your final words?!"

"No… I just apologized. You're so sad. You, Aquamarine, Jasper, those Rubies, all of you are just pets to the Diamonds. They don't care about you."

"I know that! All of us know that, but that's what we're made for! We are just extensions of the Diamonds' unyielding will!"

"I know now… When I'm done here, I wanna finally go to Homeworld and smack the Diamonds myself…"

Brookite was ready to release her final attack but was taken aback by Moonstone's words that she forgot. She was also startled to see massive ripples in the ocean begin to spread from the fusion's feet as his speech continued.

"Peridot, Adamite and Cinnabar, even Lapis… All of them thought they just had to serve the Diamonds or die. Well you know what? I'm fed up with it! Steven's tried to reason with the Diamonds, but they won't stop! So I'm not gonna stop until this whole planet's safe and that starts with putting you in a bubble!"

Before Brookite could retaliate, an utterly gigantic tidal wave appeared from behind Moonstone out of nowhere. The crashing wall of water did not touch the fusion, but it crashed right on top of her. She was forced to return all the gathered energy to her suit in order to fly away, but Moonstone was not having it. He deployed a set of wings from his back, sky blue with a slight pink tinge under the light and flew with great enough speed to clock Brookite before she could even react.

The pair both went flying as Moonstone then made an enormous cube of water bigger than Steven's house, engulfed Brookite in it and then flew at near sonic speed to send it flying for thousands of miles over open water before crashing into a random island so hard the cube detonated. While jostled from the blow, Brookite stood up after her explosion and stared at Moonstone standing five feet from her.

"You… You've been holding back," she muttered.

"Your mistake was threatening my family. Doing a job is one thing, but destroying something like that and having fun with it? Not cool, dude."

Brookite suddenly spasmed in pain, reminding her that now she was on limited time. She could feel her essence slowly being sapped by the plasma coating her. She flew at him with the speed of a bullet, but Moonstone just dodged and then whipped her in the face. They went back and forth at it again, once again evenly matched. The fusion was now throwing around far more water than before, however, and soon that began to overwhelm his opponent. Between throwing gigantic water shapes at blinding speeds or summoning smaller projectiles by the thousands, the once confident soldier was back to being on the receiving end of several painful attacks.

It soon became apparent, much to Brookite's complete disbelief and disgust, that she would fail her mission no matter what. She was taken out of that thought when Moonstone suddenly formed an odd-looking board on her feet and then appeared to be skimming along the top of the water. As he rode this new board, she noticed two things. First was the gradually growing wave that was forming underneath him. The second was that he seemed to be laughing.

Brookite's anger spiked to a new high as she charged straight at him, intent on sending him to the other side of planet. Instead the wave suddenly sprouted multiple spikes that nearly impaled her and forced her to flee. She tried flying in from behind, but the wave still seemed to notice her and fired off liquid blasts that kept her at bay.

"What's the matter?" said Moonstone as he made the wave curve as it grew to twenty feet high, "Can't handle my surfing?"

Brookite screamed in fury as she sent both her hands forward and fired off the biggest repulsor blast she could. Moonstone suddenly made his ever-growing wave go on ahead of him and powered through the blast before resuming his place on top with his surfboard as it grew to fifty feet high.

"No!" demanded Brookite, "I won't fail! I won't be defeated by a renegade fusion!"

She tried powering up one final unibeam, even if that meant completely siphoning all of her life force, but that went out the window as a massive fist punched several hundred feet away as the wave rocketed towards her. Now it was growing visibly by the second while Moonstone stood on his right hands and whooping like this was the most fun he had ever had in his life.

It was not long until suddenly the swell became a full-blown tidal wave that literally gripped Brookite by the back and ground her into the ocean surface for miles on end as it only got bigger. To make matters worse, Moonstone was still quite aware of his surroundings despite his obvious fun and was summing smaller waves to crash into her along with dozens of projectiles to further beat her down. Once the wave had grown to several thousand feet high and almost a mile wide, Moonstone finally leapt off the crest. As he fell past the once-proud soldier, now only able to groan in pain, he said the last thing she expected.

"I'm sorry this had to happen…" he said earnestly, "One day, I hope we can put aside our differences. I know Steven, Lapis and the other Crystal Gems want it too."

Brookite tried to reply, but soon the massive wave began to engulf her from all sides. Soon she was the center of a massive water sphere hundreds of feet tall and just as wide across. Since she was still processing Moonstone's words, she barely paid attention that the orb was exerting enormous pressure on her whole form. The fusion actually compressed the water on a molecular level and was gripping his hand before suddenly letting it open.

And with one final scream, Brookite was the nucleus of an aquatic explosion with all the force of a traditional kaboom. Even with the protection provided by her suit, her body was long past its limit and she was finally reduced to a brown gemstone bobbing in the water. With a flick of his wrist, Moonstone brought the stone out of the ocean on a platform and held it in his hand. He formed a periwinkle bubble around it before sending it off to the temple before finally heading for dry land.

* * *

The other Crystal Gems waited at the temple in suspense. It did not take them long to warp home, but the half hour that passed since their return gradually became torturous. The house was dead silent the entire time save for the sound of Pearl pacing back and forth as she minutely tidied up random areas to keep herself occupied. The rest of them stayed inside save for Adamite who stood waiting for Lapis outside with her eyes constantly on the horizon for any sign of her return.

When she spotted a speck appearing miles away, she quickly went inside to inform everyone. Soon the entire Crystal Gem team stood on the sand to see Moonstone touch down with Brookite's plasma suit held in his right hands. Cheers went up from the entire crew as the fusion gave them all one last smile before finally splitting up into Steven and Lapis. Even as they were panting, they both looked immensely relieved.

"Well done," said Garnet as she helped her shaky ward to his feet, "And I'll have to thank Moonstone personally the next time I see him."

"Yeah… He was pretty fun…" said Steven, "But not for a while… It was really intense too."

"Lapis?" said Adamite as she helped the blue gem stand, "How do you feel? Can I… help you in any way?"

"Nah, but thanks for the offer. I'm just gonna rest for a while."

"Understood. I'll ensure that no one disturbs your relaxation."

Lapis looked confused for a moment before shrugging and heading inside for a much-needed nap. Adamite waited a moment before following her inside and leaving Cinnabar more sure than ever that she needed to speak with Garnet about this. The rest of the group, however, were more thrilled that Brookite was defeated.

"Man, that gem was one tough customer," said Bismuth, "But it makes me wanna work even harder to beat those uppercrusts!"

"Agreed," said Rhodonite, "I need to redouble my sword training."

"And as soon as the ship gets back here," assured Topaz, "We're gonna fix it up and make it better than ever! Right, Peridot?"

Rather than answer, however, the green gem was more concerned with Brookite's suit. She had never laid her eyes on such advanced technology before and was literally drooling at the thought of all the experiments she would run on it.

"Come with me, my little marvel," she whispered to it passionately, "We've got a lot of alone time to spend…"

She then picked up the suit, easily balling it up and carrying it despite it being twice her size, and scurried inside cackling in delight.

"Peridot will be quite preoccupied," said Padparadscha, "And I'm guessing she'll be unavailable for the next few days."

"I'm guessing a full week," said Amethyst.

"Try two or three," said Rutile in stereo.

"My money is on a full month!" said Pearl, much to everyone's amusement. While the group laughed, the knowledge that many of the satellites needed to be taken care of loomed over them. Even still, they let their worries fall away for the next few minutes and enjoy their latest victory against their toughest opponent yet.

**And so Brookite is defeated and the Crystal Gems may have lost their ship, but now have that same suit to play with! What will become of it? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	53. Progress

**And now, just in time for a holiday, here's another chapter! I'd cue the fireworks, but I'd rather not burn someone's house down.**

Once Lapis was properly rested the next day, she flew out to sea and fished out the Sun Incinerator. While the group was saddened to see it waterlogged and damaged in many places, Bismuth would assured that she could iron them out. And once they fished Peridot out of her lab, she also reiterated that the electronics could also be salvaged. Once Pearl checked her data and saw that the nearest satellite was roughly a thousand miles away, the gang all agreed to let the satellite issue rest until their ship was back in flying shape.

In the meantime, the entire team redoubled their efforts to train and improve in case another surprise attack like the one at Bismuth's forge happened. This meant that both Steven and Connie were thrown into training by Garnet and Pearl. While they did many of their exercises together, Pearl took it on herself to help Connie get the hang of her new crystal powers and further improve her swordplay.

"Alright, let's go through everything to start," said the trainer as she and Connie stood at the Sky Arena at high noon, "Change your body."

With barely a thought, the pupil morphed her entire body into green crystal.

"Excellent. Now restrict the change to just your hands."

A few moments later, Connie's body returned to normal save for her crystalline hands.

"Now shape the hands into blades."

The hands reshaped themselves into knifepoints. Pearl then pulled a baseball out of her gem and threw it at the girl with no warning. She stabbed through the ball with one clean thrust of her left hand.

"Very well done. Now for your newest trick…"

Connie placed both her hands on the ground and concentrated. Her efforts were soon rewarded as a series of green crystal spikes grew out of the ground in a circle around her body. They were only a foot tall, but that was a great improvement considering her first try meant violently straining for five minutes to make a series of opulent thumbtacks.

"Impressive! Now that we've covered everything, it's time for a sparring session. Remember, let me know if it ever becomes too much for you."

The girl nodded as Pearl summoned two clones and they charged ahead with their spears drawn. They were about to strike, but two crystal spikes emerged from Connie's torso at the last minute to block them both. That left them easy pickings for her to change her entire right arm into one giant and slice one by the legs. The other clone saw her double being cut down by the legs and jumped over the blade as Connie spun in a circle but three crystal swords appeared from Connie's back and tried stabbing her in mid-air.

The Pearl clone deflected them with a spin of her spear, but Connie did not let up as she used the transformed arm and another sword held in her other hand to try taking out the clone. Pearl managed to defend everything until she suddenly struck out with her leg and kicked Connie in the face. She expected the girl to go flying, but she barely budged since her face crystallized moments before the blow hit. Connie them seized on the brief surprise and had the remaining swords she summoned earlier to fly in and impale the clone from the back.

"Oh my goodness…" said Pearl, barely believing what she saw, "Connie, that was remarkable."

"Thanks!" said the girl as she returned to normal, "I wasn't being too intense, was I?"

"I'll admit your ferocity was surprising, but not unwelcome. Learning to channel that into your fighting is an asset as long as you keep it under control."

Once she was done talking, Connie sat by the edge of the floating arena and stared at the world underneath her. She relaxed her breathing as she took in the gorgeous scenery which Pearl noticed even from a distance.

"You seem rather tense," she commented, "Anything on your mind?"

"Well… I just really want to succeed here. Those gems tried kidnapping my parents. First they were after Steven, but now my family? What did they ever do to deserve that?"

"Trust me, you refusing to obey their will is reason enough to them," Pearl said spitefully as she sat down next to her student, "Take it from experience. Trying to negotiate with them is like talking to a cinderblock."

"I don't think so. At least cinderblocks are quiet…"

"True enough…" Pearl chuckled, "But Connie, I don't want you taking this too personally. I speak from experience when I say it's not healthy and it will detract from your abilities."

"I get that. I won't go all sacrifice-crazy again."

"Good. I'm sure Steven would be very grateful to hear that like I am."

Connie smiled as they both stood up, ready for another round as the day continued on and were not the only group honing their skills.

At the same time as them, the three elemental gems were at the former site of the barn and started to spar on their own. Cinnabar had brought the idea to Adamite and Lapis that seeing how amazing Moonstone's powers were, they should work to find new ways to use their respective elements. The two were surprised by the initiative, but they quickly agreed and now stood in a triangle as they agreed to begin.

Adamite made the first move by trying to form sinkholes under Lapis and Cinnabar, but both of them avoided the trap. The former soared into the air as she gathered water from the nearby lake while the latter coated her legs in flames in order to dash out of the way. Both of them planned a counterattack as Lapis made watery fists to fly at the earthbender while Cinnabar pitched a fireball.

While Adamite dodged both attacks, the other two clashed when Cinnabar ran straight at Lapis. While the firebender expected her opponent to fly away, Lapis stood firm and prepared a liquid shield to stop whatever attack she had planned. What she did not account for was the gem running straight through it, which while slowing her down, did nothing to stop her from punching Lapis in the face.

Much to the flaming gem's surprise, that still did not throw Lapis off as she changed one of her wings into an aquatic fist as thick as her entire body and swung the new arm into Cinnabar's side. As her long-time partner went flying, Adamite readied an attack of her own. She tunneled underground, but also sent up dozens of smaller stones flying in order to distract her and further disrupt her guard. When the burliest of the three burst out of the ground in front of Lapis, she successfully landed a blow on her before the sole flyer of the group deployed her wings and lifted herself into the sky.

While Lapis planned a move from the air, Adamite and Cinnabar went at each other in melee combat. The former covered her arms in stones for armor while the latter ignited her hands. Cinnabar's blazing punches proved to be too much for Adamite's improvised gauntlets as she ended up punching through them. Before she could celebrate, though, Lapis divebombed both of them with a watery battering ram. If it were not for their quick reflexes, both of them would have been squashed.

For almost an hour, this was how the three spent their time. While the field was quickly being covered in puddles, fissures and scorch marks, all three of them were smiling. Not only did they find it fun to cut loose once in a while, coming up with new ways to outsmart each other and also devise new way to beat their enemies.

Once they decided to finally take a break, they laid in the shade of the former barn. In contrast to the constant noise they made, all three of them were completely silent as they let their bodies unwind and their minds focus on making even more new moves. The time, however, also gave Lapis time to think about something else.

"Can I ask you two something?" she said curiously. Being in the middle of three, she knew the answer when both of them turned to look at her instead of the clouds.

"Back in the old days… You know, when we were… With Homeworld…"

"What is it?" asked Adamite, "Something is clearly discomforting you."

"Spit it out then!" assured Cinnabar, "Getting stuff off your chest makes you feel better. That's why I never hold in anything!"

"We noticed," said both of her friends in unison, getting a laugh out of them and a pout from the arsonist before Lapis continued.

"I was wondering what it was like back then. I can't remember anything before I got stuck in that mirror. Did we ever… hang out like this?"

Both gems paused and thought back until Adamite found an answer. "Yes, actually. Whenever we were between assignments, we would often hand in our assignment together and then spend our leisure time together."

"Homeworld gives leisure time? Somehow I doubt that…"

"No, it's true!" said Cinnabar, "There were parties, transit rides, and almost anyone could sign up to maintain the Kindergartens."

"Really? I thought that was like Peridot's old job."

"Back then," theorized Adamite, "Homeworld was a lot less strict with its procedures. The Kindergarten was always looking for more hands to assist with upkeep and maintaining records. True, the peridots were the main workforce, but we were still welcomed to assist them. I believe they were quite fond of me in particular since my terrakinesis was the ideal way to reshape any exit holes so gems could be born with deformities."

"Deformities?"

"Yes. When a gem is made with any sort of physical deformities, it is to be harvested immediately."

"WHAT?!" shouted Lapis, "That's horrifying! I thought you said they weren't so strict back then!"

"They were, but their standards were still high. Their leniency was in letting worker gems have more freedom. Even then, though, gems like Rutile would have never been tolerated."

Their conversation stopped when Cinnabar stood up, her eyes wide as she started to walk away. The other two thought she spotted an enemy at first until she kept moving towards nothing in particular. Eventually both Adamite and Lapis got up and caught up to her.

"What's gotten into you?" asked the latter, "You look like you've seen a ghost?"

"'Ghost?' Is that some form of natural predator?" asked Adamite.

"It's…" interrupted Cinnabar, "I helped harvest gems on Homeworld."

Both gems, equally shocked, took a step back from her. This only made Cinnabar feel even worse as she started walking away from them as she kept rambling.

"I used to think it was _fun_… They'd have me throw a crate full of gemstones into this weird device that would just disintegrate them…"

"More than likely returning them to their base components," said Adamite, "But Cinnabar, it's okay. We all did things-"

"What was wrong with me?!" she gasped, "I did that so many times like it was just some game! If the others find out, they might throw me out and Steven will hate me and-"

"STOP IT!" shouted Lapis as she grabbed the red gem by the shoulders, "Stop freaking out. You're not helping anyone. Now just take a deep breath and relax."

"But Lapis…"

"Cinnabar, listen to me," she said in a much more calming voice, "Steven and the others will understand. I stole the whole ocean once and all Steven wanted to do was help me. Peridot tried to squash him, Bismuth tried to pound him twice and even Topaz dragged him into space to get a _death sentence_. And he cares about all of us."

"But…"

"Remember when this all started?"

"You mean when we… kidnapped him?" asked Adamite shamefully.

"Even after that, he was still nice to you and wanted to be friends. As soon as you said you were on our side, he let you and Adamite in without a second thought."

"Y-Yeah, he did," admitted Cinnabar, "But what about the rest?"

"They all worked for Homeworld at some point except for Amethyst and she'll be the first to tell you she isn't perfect either. Cinnabar, we're your family. That means we stick by each other no matter what, okay?"

The fiery gem seemed shocked by her words, but she was won over. She then hugged Lapis and let out all of the anxiety with a few tears before picking herself back up and then running off, saying she was going to warm up before they resumed training. That left a very relieved Lapis alone with Adamite who chuckled for a moment.

"What?" asked the former, "Was that funny?"

"No, it was very sincere. It's just that also reminded me of the past."

"Wait, really?"

"You may find it hard to believe, you may have noticed I'm not the best with emotions. Logic is more my strong suit and Cinnabar's my polar opposite. You were the middle ground who knew when to think but was much better at expressing feelings. In all honesty, it's something of a miracle the two of us survived without you for so long."

"Adamite, I think you might be exaggerating…"

"I don't think so," the earthbender said moving closer to Lapis, "You were a vital part of our old team and I know the other Crystal Gems hold you in high regard as well. Without you, Moonstone never would have existed and Brookite would have trampled us."

"Half of that was Steven…"

"Perhaps, but you mustn't undersell your accomplishments. You have tremendous abilities, a constant desire to improve and you want to protect people."

"Yeah… But I was kind of a jerk before all that."

"And I'm a constant ray of sunshine?" Adamite quipped now only a foot away from Lapis, "And trust me, you did have the occasional moment where you told both of us to shut up."

"Heh… That does sound like me."

"Lapis, believe me and take your own advice: We all did less than admirable things on Homeworld, but that doesn't matter now. We have a much better life here and we need to protect it. I don't care what happened before all of this. I want to be here now with you…"

Adamite was about to reach a hand up to Lapis's, but a sudden shout from the distance caught both of the gems off-guard.

"Hey, are you done being mushy yet? We've got training to do!" Cinnabar said, overly eager to fling fireballs.

Both of the gems stepped back from each other with a noticeable yellow blush on Adamite's face. As immensely awkward as they both felt, Lapis still felt immensely better.

"You know," she said as the two walked back to Cinnabar, "I guess one good thing came out of being Homeworld droogs."

"Besides existing?"

"Yeah. I got to be friends with you two."

They wanted to continue, but Cinnabar was now beyond impatient. She ran straight at them with both fists firing and they had to break apart unless they wanted their hair singed. Even if they could regenerate their locks, they knew the firebender would laugh at them over it for days.

* * *

The next few days passed similarly with the gems splitting up to do their own things before coming back together to work on exercises as a team or simply to spend a moment together. It not only made sense to keep up morale, but it also reminded them of the peace they would be able to enjoy every day once Homeworld was fully dealt with.

The only exception to this rule was Peridot. The moment she got her hands on Brookite's suit, she holed herself up in her lab day and night to experiment on it. The properties of the wearable plasma fascinated her unlike anything she had ever worked on and she was hellbent on finding a way to utilize it.

It was not until almost a full week later that she stumbled out of her lab and into the temple in the middle of the night that she finally gave herself a break. The only sound in the room was Steven and Greg both lightly breathing in their sleep above her. She walked over to the kitchen island and sat at one of the stools cradling her head, trying to curb the massive headache she felt. Minutes passed in relative silence until Amethyst came walking through the front door with a new wrestling belt slung over her shoulder.

"Man, those chumps didn't know what hit them…" she chuckled to herself as she headed to her room, only to see the unmoving Peridot in the kitchen. Half wondering if she was seeing things, she moved to the island and sat next to her. When the smaller gem still did not notice her, Amethyst spoke up.

"Hey, what's up with you? Finished making a plasma death ray or something?" she whispered, still mindful of the two snoozing above them.

"No…" she moaned, sounding utterly miserable.

"Okaaay… What's up then?"

"It turns out that plasma is highly malleable and surprisingly stable. The only thing I can't do is fabricate more of it."

"Well that stinks. I'd totally want a closet full of those things."

"So did I," admitted Peridot as she trudged back to her lab. Amethyst followed her and was surprised to see what appeared to be hundreds of white marbles littering the floor and several tables. Brookite's suit sat on the central worktable, looking no different, while surrounded by dozens of tools including multiple sets of plyers, scissors and even a chainsaw.

"Do I wanna know?" asked Amethyst, only to grimace when she saw Peridot slump on the floor with one of the marbles in her hand.

"I was trying to isolate a sample of the plasma so I could potentially create a second suit. Every time I separate a piece, it immediately crystallizes and becomes completely inert."

"Okay, that sucks, but why do you look so down? The thing still looks fine so why can't you make something else?"

"I wanted to make a suit for myself."

"Again, I get that, but why not-?"

"Because I'm sick of being useless!" she shouted, throwing the marble hard enough to smash into one of the invisible walls of her room. The ever-present lightning zapped it into ashes when it made contact.

"What?! You're not useless!" protested Amethyst, "You make all our awesome gadgets!"

"Maybe, but give Pearl enough time and she could equal or even surpass me."

"You helped me hijack Emerald's ship!"

"While you did the vast majority of all the work."

"Greg's a super-awesome fighter thanks to that suit you made!"

"That was a joint effort with Bismuth, and I refer you to my earlier statement about Pearl."

Amethyst kept quiet now as Peridot kept pontificating. "All this time, I've been relegated to the sidelines. Sure, I've made my contributions through my technological know-how and use of my metal powers like during the abduction attack, but it doesn't feel like enough."

Peridot then stood up and began pacing as she returned her focus to the suit. "But even with my ferrokinesis, I have the hard limit of being restricted to using whatever metal is around me. Lapis has been able to overcome her limitations using her wings and better physical abilities, but that's not much of an option for me. Trying to train myself to any notable physical improvement would take so much time away from my inventions and then we'd be even more vulnerable."

"Ouch, man," sympathized Amethyst, "I know the feeling."

"Perhaps, but it doesn't make it much easier. Knowing about a scientific anomaly does not mean you'll instantly find the answer."

Amethyst walked inside and looked at the suit herself, finding it much more appealing now that it wasn't being worn by a megalomaniac gem ogling Pearl. As her mind wandered, an idea popped into her head.

"Maybe you're thinking about this all wrong…"

"Yes, quite reassuring. Tell me how wrong I am."

"No, just hear me out. Maybe you shouldn't mess with this, but you could make a set of armor out of metal! One you could control with your powers."

The scientist opened her mouth to protest, but no sound emerged. Her creative juices were starting to flow as her mind turned from despairing to finding an all-new way to apply her talents.

"THAT'S IT!" she shouted, completely elated. With the door to the main house still open, however, she quickly clamped her mouth shut out of fear that she awoke either Steven or Greg. When the only noise that came was a light muttering from upstairs, she sighed in relief while Amethyst was busy gathering up all the marbles from the floor.

"Well, glad your local champion wrestler could help! You want these little orb thingies?"

"Please, take them. I need to be free of distractions while I get back to work."

"I thought you said you suck at working with metal?"

"I said it wasn't my strong suit, but I can still draw up designs! Plus, I did have a backup plan for this armor in case I couldn't use it. The abduction brought several design flaws of Greg's armor to my attention and now I might have the perfect means to upgrade it!"

"Cool beans. See you in a month, nerd!"

* * *

While Amethyst was exaggerating that night, Peridot was once again nowhere to be seen for several more days, but everyone had their own jobs to attend to. Bismuth was making headway on restoring the Sun Incinerator with the Off-Colors pitching in wherever they could to speed up the process. The others continued their training and that included Steven.

The boy was off doing his usual morning routine with fifty laps around Beach City to warm up before heading back to Garnet and Pearl for the bulk of his exercise. While that may have sounded extreme to anyone who asked, those who saw him run understood. The sight of a pink blur running at speeds faster than many of the cars obeying the town's speed limits became a familiar occurrence to the citizens with only the occasional tourist asking about it.

He was halfway done with his workout when something pink, furry and unusually excited appeared right in front of him from a swirling pink portal.

"Lion!" he exclaimed joyfully, "Where have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"

The feline came and went as he pleased, but his absence for literal weeks only did not worry the boy since he had far more problems on his plate as well as the knowledge that his companion was more than able to take care of himself.

Lion immediately knelt down and, after shoving away a belly rub, made it clear he expected Steven to hop on and go somewhere.

"Oh, I would but I gotta tell Garnet," the boy insisted, "Then we can set up a way to make up for this and-"

The cat gave him little choice in the matter as he bit Steven's shirt and flung him into the air so he landed on his back. Before Steven could protest, Lion roared open another portal and jumped through until they emerged in the middle of a desert.

"LION!" yelled Steven, "What are you doing?! Garnet's not gonna be happy when I'm late!" He tried pulling out his cellphone only to see there was no reception. "I can't even call Pearl out here! What gives?"

His four-legged companion answered by throwing Steven off his back into the sand and walking in a random direction. Feeling there was no other way to get answers, the half-gem followed as best as he could given that his shoes kept sinking into the dunes. It was not until he saw a familiar pink ridge in the distance that he realized where Lion was taking him.

"Mom's old landfill?" he said trying to get Lion's attention, "What's this for?"

The door was already unlocked and so the two strolled in without another word. Steven peered at all of the piles of rubbish, wondering if there was something he was supposed to grab here when he suddenly felt a painful pull in his gut. He wanted to call out for Lion to take him home, but no sound came out as he soon found himself in a black void.

"Oh, thank goodness it worked!" said a very familiar woman's voice, "I hoped my connection with Lion was strong enough to bring you both here."

"Mom?!" said Steven, "What's going on? How did I get here again?"

"Long story short, I needed to talk to you and I've been trying for some time now but nothing went through. I'm grateful you were never as depressed as before, but I needed to do this and I figured maybe bringing you somewhere I spent so much time would do the trick."

"Couldn't you have just gone with the armory? Or _your _bedroom at the temple?"

"Maybe… But I knew Lion knew the way here. It was his home and he brought you here the first time."

"Really? How'd you meet?"

"Well, that's a long story that I sadly don't have time for. I needed to talk to you about Homeworld."

The brief joy at seeing Rose again vanished when she said that, not helped by the serious expression on her face.

"You're going to want to sit down for this," Rose said. Two white cushioned chairs much like the ones in Steven's house popped up on command. Once they were both seated, Rose started her explanation.

"Steven, I really hate that it's come to this. I wished I could just go back to watching, but I have a hunch something serious is happening. Those spy cameras Brookite was guarding? I don't think they were just watching you."

"Huh? What, you think they're after something else?" replied a shocked Steven, "What else is there?"

"You're a smart enough young man to know already. Think; what is something this planet has that the Diamonds want?"

"Revenge on me and the other Crystal Gems for what you did?"

"True, but something more… tangible."

Steven was baffled now, remembering how clear the Diamonds made it that they were going to wipe Earth away once their grudge was settled. The only reason they went after humans was as bait for him and it was obvious they had no other use for them. His memories started going back farther until he remembered something else.

"The Cluster…"

"I think so, Steven. That thing was a few steps away from destroying Earth and you along with it."

"But… But I bubbled it! It's under like a mile of rock!"

"Gems bubbles can be broken. My guess is that those cameras were actually scanning the planet itself so they could find a way to pop that bubble you made open."

"But that's crazy!"

"Is it? You've already seen the lengths they'll go to for the sake of soothing their egos." Rose's voice turned venomous as she got up and walked out of her chair.

"Mom? You don't sound so good…"

"Steven… This is the last thing I wanted for you. When I had you, my last thoughts were hoping that you'd have a peaceful, normal life free from all the strife me and so many other gems went through. I carved out a tranquil little place for us all where we could be whatever we wanted away from those psychopaths and yet they won't let up. They've kidnapped you, tried destroying the whole place again and again… They'll never stop."

Steven rose from his seat and grabbed his mother's hand. Shocked by the gesture, Rose looked his way despite not wanting him to see her cry. The son was unperturbed by the expression and spoke as reassuringly as he could.

"Mom, I promise I can do this. If Homeworld want to use the Cluster, the Crystal Gems and I will stop it. We did it once and we can do it again! Heck, if anything, the Cluster is a friend! It won't wanna destroy the Earth."

"Steven…" Rose sobbed, amazed by how much her own son resembled her more than herself right now. Seeing him like this made her snap out of her sorrow and get back to what she wanted to tell him. "This is still just a theory. You need to actually confirm it."

"How do we do that?"

"You could have one of the satellites retrieved and then Peridot could analyze it. If it's designed to scan for the Cluster, no doubt it's components would reflect it."

"Yeah, that's a good point. I wouldn't wanna waste the gems' time. Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome, but I'm afraid there's one other very big thing I need from you."

"'From me?' What is it?"

"I actually have something that will help you fight Homeworld. I didn't tell any of the other gems about, but I'm sure it could be the key to stopping Homeworld permanently."

"What?! That's great! What is it? Where is it?"

"I… can't tell you what it is."

"What? Why not? If it's some super-dangerous weapon, I can handle it!"

"I wish it was that simple. Trust me, if anyone knew about it, the consequences could be horrible. What I can tell you, though, is where it is. Do you remember seeing a treasure chest inside the pocket dimension in Lion's mane?"

"Yeah, I remember. It's in there?"

"Yes, but you'll need the key to open it."

"Did Lion swallow that one too?" Steven squirmed

"No no, don't worry about that," Rose giggled before finishing, "It's somewhere cleaner, but much harder to reach. It's inside your gem."

"Really?! It's been there this whole time?"

"I never wanted anyone to find it, so I literally held onto it until sacrificed my body. Now you've inherited it just like my powers."

"Well then that's super easy! I'll just summon it like I summon my shield!"

The rebel leader turned spectral mother sighed at that. "I love your optimism, but I really hate to disappoint you. Summoning physical matter from a gem is much different than summoning your weapons. Have you ever tried storing things in your gem like Pearl does?"

"No, I never really needed to."

"The good news is I already have a good idea on how to access it."

"Awesome! Tell me!"

"That's the bad news… You need to be more in touch with your powers to do that and you aren't going to like it."

"How bad could it be?"

"You'd have to transform like you did when you fought Jasper." Seeing all the color drain from Steven's face, she felt she owed him an explanation.

"When you did, you quite literally became more of a gem. Your human half receded until you were one hundred percent alien. That's why your powers increase so much at that point and now you-"

"No," he interrupted, "I won't do it."

"Steven, please, you have to."

"No, I don't. There has to be something, anything else that can do it. We can build something, we can try new fusions, we could even find stronger gems who hate Homeworld!"

"It's not enough, Steven. Believe me when I say the contents of that chest is far more powerful than anything we have or could get in any reasonable amount of time."

"I can't… Last time I went berserk and killed someone! And then I went nuts on you! I-I can't stand thinking about it!"

"Steven, calm down!" Rose said, holding her son's hands and kneeling to look him in the eye, "If you want, I can help you."

"H-How?"

"If you let me into your mind more, I can actually communicate with you when you're asleep every night. That way I can help you open up more and discover a way to do it without losing yourself."

Rose was worried when he did not react for several seconds until he looked at her with a worried yet accepting smile and nodded. It might be a difficult task, but he meant his word when he said he would protect his home.

**And so the suit is accounted for, but much bigger things are on the horizon! Connie's new powers, the growing relationship between elemental gems and the return of the Cluster! And also Lion's first appearance in a long time. My thanks to one of my readers on AO3 for pointing it out! But what will happen next? Tune in to the next dramatic bonfire cere- I mean, chapter to find out!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


	54. Powers and Responsibilities

**After a bit of a delay thanks to my birthday and becoming a fan of One Piece, here's the latest installment with some more focus on the Off-Colors!**

The peaceful period continued for the Crystal Gems as days passed with the major focus being returning the Sun Incinerator to its former glory. Bismuth finally got Peridot out of her lab long enough to bring the software back online within a few hours and soon the blacksmith was hammering away all the dents in the hull while the other Off-Colors went off to do their own things.

Rhodonite followed through on training more with Pearl and soon ended up sparring against her clones for hours at a time to hone her skills. The other three, however, had to find new ways to pass the time.

Since none of them had much experience with Earth, they used the break to explore Beach City and some of the surrounding areas. Padparadscha and Rutile simply warped away from the temple off to the gem battlefield after hearing about from one of Pearl's stories about the original rebellion. As soon as they arrived, both of them were blown away by the strawberries covered the ground and the weapons still littering the field.

"Wow! It's just like Pearl said!" said Rutile's left head.

"It hasn't changed at all!" agreed the right head as her one set of feet walked onto the ground. Padparadscha was not far behind although far more quiet as she enjoyed the gentle sunlight and the sweet-smelling fruit she passed by. Rutile was far more expressive in taking in sights as both her heads babbled until she stopped in front of a massive inverted pyramid.

"Hm, looks like the base the other Crystal Gems visited months ago," said Padparadscha, "It hasn't changed at all."

"Hey, remember what Pearl said?" said Rutile, "That they found a corrupted gem here powering the place?"

"Indeed. That would realistically mean the power source is defunct."

"So that means we shouldn't have any problems going in!" The two-headed gem then walked in through the door like she was still sightseeing while the miniature psychic behind her was more apprehensive. She just predicted that Rutile would do something very reckless.

The Off-Colors were both surprised by the odd nature of the room. They appeared to have walked on the ceiling as they noticed elaborate murals covering the walls and a large hole on the ceiling. As they stepped inside, the only door closed behind them making Padparadscha feel worse. Rutile, on the other hand, was oblivious to this and was instead drawn to the obelisk in the center of the room where a glowing silver stone gently floated.

"Wait a minute, why is this here?" wondered Rutile's right head.

"I thought Steven and the others took the corrupted gem powering this place…" recalled the left head, "Pearl said so in her story."

"The only reason another one would be here is either it's another corrupted gem…"

"Or this place is back online!" surmised Padparadscha, "We need to leave now!"

"What?!" Rutile said in unison, only now realizing they were trapped, "Then if this is like Pearl's story, there's only one way out of here!"

"Connect to Garnet!" said Padparadscha into her communicator, planning to thank Peridot as soon as she got out of this before the link was made, "We need help! We're in the Pyramid Temple and it looks like it's back online!"

"Homeworld's work…" muttered the fusion on the other side, "That means the door will only open when you detach the power source."

"Easier said than done!" The psychic and Rutile had fell through in a hole in the ceiling as the gravity reversed itself leaving them in a round corridor with multiple doors. They already knew all of the doors were dead ends designed to lead to trap rooms that would only loop back to this central hub.

"Smash through the floor!" said Garnet, "That's how Steven and us all got out."

Rutile and Padparadscha leapt as high as they could and put as much force into their feet to try and bust through the stone floor, but they barely made a dent. They tried again and again, but they made no progress.

"We don't have enough power!" moaned Rutile's right half.

"And all those other rooms aren't gonna help!" her other half said as she kicked the floor.

* * *

"Everyone in here, now!" shouted Garnet at the top of her lungs, "We have an emergency!"

Steven soon came tumbling down from upstairs, still out of it thanks to his latest training session with Rose. Every night when he closed his eyes, he let his mother speak up and she spent hours helping Steven meditate in order to attain his full-gem form without losing his rationality. So far it had yielded little fruit, but he did have the occasional chat with her to make up for years of lost mother-son bonding.

Pearl, Amethyst, Topaz and Bismuth all entered from outside as they were all working on the Sun Incinerator. Peridot managed to come out of her lab with on odd metal gauntlet on her arm. The ones left out were Adamite, Cinnabar, Lapis who were out on another sparring trip and Fluorite and Rhodonite who were also exploring.

"We need to get to the Pyramid Temple ASAP. Padparadscha and Rutile are locked inside, and the base is back online thanks to Homeworld."

"Say no more!" Amethyst swore as she rushed over to the warp pad and beamed off. The others, however, stayed to deliberate.

"Any word on what they're doing now?" asked Pearl, ready to connect her own communicator.

"No, it looks like Pap killed the connection. I'm hoping she did it and it isn't some form of electronic interference."

"That reminds me…" spoke Peridot, "I've finished analyzing the satellite Lapis brought back."

"And?" Steven asked, hoping his mother was wrong.

"Rose Quartz was exactly right. It's outfitted for geothermal location and analysis of the mineral components that make up Earth's various layers. Good thing the one here is the only one left."

"Well, now we have a serious issue on our hands," said Pearl, "We have no conceivable way to stop the Cluster if it gets free."

"But there's still me, right?" protested Steven, "I talked it out of forming once!"

"True, but perhaps they won't get a choice this time," suggested Bismuth, "They could probably figure out some way to forcefully make it emerge and then we'd have no options."

"We'll worry about that later," insisted Garnet, "Right now, we need to focus on Rutile and Pap still stuck in hostile territory. I'll go assist Amethyst while the rest of you get back to what you were doing."

As the group split up, Steven noticed the odd gauntlet Peridot was wearing and asked her about it.

"Oh, this old thing? Bismuth helped me put it together. Behold!"

She then flexed her fingers and soon the metal glove split into multiple parts around her fingers and hand, all levitating around her splayed digits.

"And this is only the first piece in the set!" explained the scientist excitedly, "I plan to have a matching gauntlet and then boots to exponentially boost my combat capabilities!

"Whoa! That's amazing!" exclaimed the boy, "I never thought you'd really learn to fight."

"Neither did I, but I figure it's only fair to expand my talents. Soon I'll be the smartest AND strongest member of the team."

"We'll have to see about that other one…" muttered Garnet as she walked to the warp pad and left to help the others.

* * *

"The fifty-ninth attempt to break the floor will fail," predicted Padparadscha as Rutile slumped to the floor, her feet ringing in pain as they made no progress. While the little psychic was glad to get a message out to the Crystal Gems, the sudden disconnect alarmed her.

"Well, that's just great!" shouted Rutile, "Now what do we do?! Homeworld could come down and catch us like we're bugs in a jar!"

"I thought Lapis got rid of all the satellites in space…"

"Doesn't mean there isn't some kind of camera in here."

The smaller gem had to admit that was a valid point, but it also made her anxiety worse. She was half-tempted to try her luck with one of the trap rooms just to give her something else to focus on.

"I think Garnet should be on her way…" said Padparadscha, trying to alleviate the tension, "But it could be quite some time."

"Maybe there's some other way out…" thought Rutile out loud.

"Like what? A hidden mechanism?"

"Maybe, I don't know, but it's worth trying something," said the left head.

"I can't just hand here and do nothing!" affirmed the right. She then started feeling up the walls and the ceiling to find some unseen button or switch to reopen the bottom hatch but nothing seemed to stick. Padparadscha soon joined in, but the duo soon found nothing until Rutile's hands came up to the frame around one of the rooms.

"I wonder…"

"Hm? Rutile's about to get an idea…" predicted Pap.

"Homeworld just turned this place on, right?"

"As far as we know."

"So… Maybe when they did, they changed how the mechanics work. We know these rooms should just loop around, but we haven't actually tried it yet."

Rutile then stepped through one of the doors to find a grid of colored metal panels covering the ground and even the walls. Padparadscha followed her through, but immediately wanted to turn back. They both watched the panels flash a series of random colors until Rutile tried her luck stepping on the closest one as it flashed blue. A jet of freezing gas then erupted from the floor that would have frozen her foot solid if she had not pulled it back in the nick of time. They could both see the door on the other side.

"Well… I never said this would be easy…"

* * *

Completely unaware of the plight that their two fellow crewmembers were going through, Fluorite and Rhodonite were enjoying the sights of a pleasant mountain range. Nature fascinated all of the Off-Colors thanks to spending so much time in the bleak caves underneath the technological metropolis that was all of Homeworld so even the sight of trees, grass and wild animals roaming the untamed land had a sense of novelty to them.

The serenity of the environment around them led the two to alternating between chatting as they moved and staying silent while taking in the wonders around them. Pleasant as it was, the silence got Fluorite to thinking as she slinked along the ground.

"Hmm…" she mumbled before speaking aloud, "Rhodonite?"

"What is it?"

"I wonder… What else… I can do…"

"How do you mean? The Sun Incinerator's always been easy to helm with you as the engineer."

"I mean… You and Captain Topaz can fight…"

"You mean… You want to learn combat too?" Rhodonite asked, surprised to hear Fluorite's always pleasant and relaxed voice being riddled with doubt.

"Yes but… This body of mine… It isn't suited for it."

"Well, I can't deny that but… What do you plan to do about it?"

"I don't know… I've looked like this since I first formed."

"You've… never tried changing your appearance at will?"

"Have you?"

"Um… No. I've always been satisfied with how my form is and now mine is conducive for sword fighting. I-I know that isn't much of an answer but-"

"It's okay. I've always loved… How comfortable you were."

"What do you mean? Back on Homeworld, I was a nervous wreck. You three were the only things stopping me from having a complete breakdown!"

"I meant… Pearl and Ruby. Your love for each other… Did you ever doubt it?"

"Never," she answered immediately, "No matter what that planet put us through, we knew that living together in secret was far better than trying to abide by that stupid caste system."

"Exactly. It wasn't that easy… for me."

Rhodonite's eyes widened. She only now realized she never did ask how Fluorite came to be and was always content with whatever makes her multiple components happy. Instead Fluorite explained how she came to be.

"It all started with Amber and Amber… Essentially the grunts of the military. Their only job was… to fetch equipment and act as lackies to support rubies."

"Working UNDER rubies? I didn't even know that was possible!"

"It is… And they hated it. The only thing they enjoyed… was each other. They were perfectly happy… until they laid eyes on a Peridot. They both were smitten with one… when she came to check up on some equipment… after a battle…"

"Another peridot?"

"Yes, but she's much more… restrained. She hated… all of the technology… and then both Amber and Amber admitted their feelings."

"And then what happened?"

"She swore she couldn't decide… And that's when she got an idea. She said… why can't all three of them… be together?"

Fluorite's story continued onto how the ambers took turns seeing their third link in secret, knowing how taboo the relationship was. Rhodonite could not help but find it touching how far they went out of their way to see each other until one fateful day when an agate overheard the ambers talking about their first attempt to have all three meet at the same time and thus they had to run. They found their third and vanished into the catacombs where they enjoyed all their newfound freedom. That was when the three fused for the first time into Iolite.

"What was Iolite like?"

"Very strong-willed, hotheaded and ready to fight to system… She demolished every robot on her path… But that only led to more retribution. Dozens of them surrounded her… She was forced to split up and the three sought shelter… It broke their hearts to be alone again."

According to her, it took years for the three to reunite and in that time each of the trio found another rogue gem. One amber found a pearl who defied her master after hearing the stories of Rose Quartz's pearl on Earth. The other amber found a depressed runaway named Nickeline who specialized in producing gem currency but grew tired of the constant bribery and corruption of the empire's finances. The lone peridot met an oddball named Tourmaline who was a performer who grew weary of the "approved" music of gem culture and was incarcerated for experimenting with different compositions.

Each of the new couplets bonded as they continued to evade capture from Homeworld and soon contemplated fusing as well. That was when Amber, Amber and Peridot had to confess they already found someone, two someones much to the newcomers' surprise, but none of that mattered. The duos swore to never part and they eventually set

"When the three finally found each other… They were stunned to see they all found a new partner. They all talked for days… Bonding with each other… Telling their stories… And that's when the decision was made."

"That's when you became Fluorite?"

"Exactly. All they heard was how wrong they all were… But together… They finally found a circle where they were right. They could compromise… They could agree… And then there was me."

"Wow… I never knew all of that. Mind if I tell Rutile and Pap that?"

"Not at all. Where are those two?"

"Not sure, but I can find out!" Rhodonite then activated her communicator and spoke "Connect to Padparadscha."

"Rhodonite, is that you?!" said the psychic on the other end, much to the immediate alarm of the four-armed fusion. That feeling only grew when what sounded like flamethrowers and lasers rang out in the background.

"What on Earth is all that?!"

"We're in the Pyramid Temple and it turns out the place is active again! Get back to the others if you can, we need help in here!"

"On it!" Rhodonite immediately turned to Fluorite and explained everything she just heard. As the two hurried back to Beach City as fast as they could, the caterpillar gem once again thought about her current issue.

"Listen, it's going to be okay!" assured Rhodonite, seeing the doubting expression on her comrade's face, "If you want to change yourself, then do it! You're in control of who you are and if you don't, you're still the best engineer the Sun Incinerator can ask for!"

"Thank you, Rhodonite. I'll think about it… later."

* * *

Back in the Pyramid Temple, Rutile had come to greatly regret her hasty actions. The mess of colored platforms was not too terrible to deal with once they learned the grey blocks were perfectly safe, but they ran into a problem with the next room. Rather than loop them back to the central hub, it brought them to another trap room. One room filled with lava geysers later and her and Padparadscha were confronted with a massive wall of changing laser beams nearly poofed them with any false move.

This pattern continued for what felt like an eternity and the pair of Off-Colors were getting worn down by the constant hazards. Both of them lost count of how many gauntlets they passed and yet there was no sign of slowing down.

"Pap…" said Rutile weakly, "I'm really sorry…"

"Don't be. No one… Could have predicted this… Even with proper Future Vision…" replied her friend, trying to hide her own signs of fatigue.

"I can't get through to the others…"

"Neither can I… Not like we have much of an opportunity."

Their latest deathtrap to deal with was a room full of erratically moving platforms that threatened to drop them into a pool of lava if they mistimed one of their jumps. Even with the enhanced jumping abilities gems possessed, the platforms could tilt and randomly flip over so they had practically no time to find a proper route.

They both took another leap of faith to reach a platform several feet above them, but their only chance for salvation suddenly moved away from them. They managed to land on another square, but it was rapidly sinking towards the fiery pool below. They only just managed to see another square spinning back and forth and managed to land on it.

"This is getting ridiculous!" said Rutile's left head.

"We're not even getting closer to the exit!" agreed her right head but then something else caught her eye. Padparadscha was skipping from one platform to another with reckless abandon in one rush. The alarming part was that it was actually working.

"Pap?! What are you doing?!"

"One of us will make it to the end…" she said as she flew from one platform to the next, "If one of us can get out, then we can get help and-"

"Padparadscha, wait!" Rutile reached out her hand as her platform suddenly turned ninety-degrees. She managed to grab onto one of the corners, but it was only a matter of time before she fell. Padparadscha turned around and saw her predicament but that was the worst thing the little psychic could do. She did not see the square she was aiming for suddenly move to the right. It was only when she passed it falling down that she realized her mistake.

"NO!"

Rutile's outstretched hand then began to vibrate on its own and then, much to the conjoined gem's amazement, Padparadscha stopped falling. Instead of plummeting to the lava, she was coming towards her.

"Rutile will discover a brand-new power!" predicted Padparadscha, completely amazed at the sudden change but was grateful nonetheless. Soon she was holding onto Rutile's right hand as their platform righted itself.

"I… what?!" said the gem, staring at her own hand, "How did that-?!"

"It's almost like when Peridot developed her metal powers," guessed Pap, "You felt a strong emotion and then it emerged."

Rutile then got an idea. She focused on the platforms still moving randomly in front of her and extended both her arms and willed this new power to manifest. The only problem was nothing happened.

"Okay, that's weird. I felt the same vibrating…"

"Maybe try just one hand?" suggested her friend.

The two-headed gem did so with her left hand. Several of the nearest platforms were suddenly flung away like rockets.

"Okay, what?! This doesn't make any sense!" said Rutile's right half.

"Is it random?" offered the left head, but Padparadscha then pointed to a square that was briskly spinning in circles.

"Actually, I have an idea. Try your right hand."

Although confused, Rutile tried it and the platform started flying at her.

"Now switch to the left!"

Rutile switched hands and now the platform was flung away from her.

"Oh, I get it!" said the left head, "My side can bring things closer!"

"And mine can push things away!" said the right head.

"Good, because this platform has had enough of us!" Padparadscha said as the block under their feet just started freefalling towards the molten pit.

With some grasp of how this new ability worked, Rutile now had an idea on how to finally end this ordeal. She asked Padparadscha to hold onto her waist, so her hands were left free and then focused on several platform with her right hand. They stopped flitting about and all started coming towards her. One by one she hopped on them and soon brought herself and Pap to the wall along the left side of the corridor.

"What exactly are you planning?" asked the psychic as their platform was directly against the wall.

"Making a way out of this mess!" Rutile then flung her left hand at the wall, causing a wave of gravitational force that caused the brick-like surface to crack. The room, however, seemed to notice what Rutile was doing. An alarm blared and the doors on both sides of the trap room slammed shut.

"Okay, that complicates things…" said the conjoined gem in stereo.

"And so does that!" Padparadscha said pointing down. The lava pool was now rapidly rising and all of the platforms started to fall into the molten bottom including their own. Realizing she only had one shot at this, Rutile jumped into the air and used her right hand to pull as many platforms as she could manage up with her. Fifteen tiles were quickly hurtling their way, but Rutile suddenly stopped her ascent as she hit the top of the corridor.

Padparadscha tried not to scream as Rutile suddenly jumped off the ceiling, slowing her descent somewhat but still bringing them closer to the rising tide of lava. Before she could wonder what was going on, she noticed Rutile had actually grabbed one of the tiles as she righted herself and placed it under her feet. With one push of her left hand, a wave of gravity forced all of the flying tiles into the cracked wall where many of them were embedded.

"Your planning to break down the wall!" Padparadscha realized, half thanks to her faulty psychic abilities.

"That's the idea!" Rutile then gave one final flex of her right hand, sending her and her passenger rocketing towards the damaged wall. As they started to feel the intense heat of the liquid rock lick their form, the final plan of Rutile's plan came to fruition. She repositioned herself one last time so that her feet and the platform were forcing the wall while she was still pushing herself against the wall. With this improvised battering ram set up, she could only hope it was enough to break through.

Meanwhile, outside the temple, Garnet and Amethyst were both trying to burst through the locked door to no avail. They had tried whipping and pounding the entrance in, but it was no use. They considered getting Pearl or Peridot to devise a way in, but they both knew the Off-Colors were on limited time. It almost seemed like it was time to get Sugilite involved to just demolish the place until a resounding crash rang out above them. The two Crystal Gems watched in amazement as Rutile and Padparadscha came screaming out of a giant hole in the side of the temple while molten lava flooded out behind them. Amethyst ran out of the way of the molten wave while Garnet got drenched by it just as her two teammates crashed into the ground not far away.

"Good to see you found your own way out," she commended, "It looks like you're not too hurt."

"Just a little shaken up," groaned Rutile's left head.

"But we found something else!" cheered her right head.

Once she and Pap were back on their feet and Amethyst returned, the Off-Colors recounted their adventure along with the new gravity powers Rutile possessed. In addition to that, the temple's door opened once again but Garnet decided to leave the issue for now. She would have someone properly investigate the place later.

**And so Rutile becomes the second gem to awaken new powers on her own! Who will be next? Or will it be time for Steven to awaken someone else first? Find out next time!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below!**


	55. Time's Up

**I wasn't happy with how long the last chapter took so I decided to compensate here! And it's moments like these that make me grateful there are no deadlines... But enough twaddle! Onto the show!**

The whole team was stunned to see Rutile demonstrate her new gravity abilities, but none more so than Peridot. She demanded a challenge to see which of their powers was better especially as her special armor was now upgraded to matching gauntlets with the boots and a breastplate that she could use as a hoverboard still to come. Everyone else, however, was grateful for one more advantage against Homeworld and soon they all went back to their activities.

The relative normality continued as the Sun Incinerator was finally back to flying shape after Brookite's assault. Topaz and her crew were all but absent for an entire day as they refreshed themselves with the controls and simply enjoyed being able to take a casual trip to the Moon to watch more _Camp Pining Hearts_ and then be back before sunset.

As the days went, Rutile was soon added into the training repertoire and soon Garnet and Pearl found they had their hands full between her and Rhodonite now stepping up as fighters coupled with Steven and Connie still honing their skills. They were almost grateful that the elemental trio had taken to training with each other instead of wanting the two of them as teachers.

Adding to Pearl's schedule specifically was Greg. It turns out Peridot finished the upgraded suit already but simply had not mentioned it due to her new fixation on her own armor. This meant that the father now had to get reacquainted to the new technology and see any new functions it had.

This is what brought him and Pearl to the Sky Arena after that father spent a fair amount of time tinkering with the suit to get a grasp on the upgrades Peridot provided. While the suit looked only slightly different with a rippling sheen across the whole suit thanks to the plasma imbued in the metal along with a transparent helmet, the real change was in performance.

Pearl stood ready with a fencing sabre as Greg charged forward, once again hovering above the ground but at a much faster pace, and struck with a light blade of his own so fast he nearly struck down Pearl in one hit. While the gem countered, she was staggered from the force his swing had. She quickly got her stance back and began striking back to force Greg on the defensive.

"I must admit," said the gem as her blade locked with Greg's, "Brookite was no pushover. You having her power would have worried me before…"

"…Because we were still acting like self-absorbed teens?" Greg retorted as he summoned a blaster in one hand and nearly shot Pearl in the gut. His gambit paid off as she broke away from him and had to dodge the blasts he peppered her with. Thanks to her smaller figure and much greater agility, Pearl maneuvered around his fire and broke through by throwing her spear right at him.

Greg decided now was a good time to show the biggest change Peridot made: his tether cables. She realized implementing full flight into the suit was too difficult given the resources and Greg's body mass, so she created an alternative solution - a pair of grappling hooks made out of the malleable plasma of Brookite's suit that could let him grab onto walls, the ground or anything sturdy in sight to give him an added mobility option.

In this case, he used one of his cables to latch onto one of the seats and fly towards it. This not only let him dodge the spear effortlessly, but it also kept his body relatively straight compared to when he was running and fire at Pearl more.

As shocked as the veteran Crystal Gem was by the new reveal, she was far from done. She decided it was time to stop holding back herself as she summoned two copies from her gem. All three Pearls rushed in just as Greg righted himself from his trip. Greg hurriedly summoned blasters in both hands and managed to shoot two of them down on the draw, but that left one pointing a spear in his face.

"Call it a draw?" Greg offered as his eyes crossed to see the tip of the weapon right above his nose.

"I'll concede to that," Pearl agreed, "And to answer your question, yes. I'd have thought you couldn't handle this kind of burden."

"Burden? I thought the point of this thing was to make me better…" Greg had the helmet recede so he could get a breath of fresh air.

"Power like that can be incredibly useful but putting yourself into danger is a burden. I've done it for so long that I'm almost numb to it but you?"

"You think I'm… not cut out for it?"

"Absolutely not."

"Huh?"

"I know you have the drive to protect Steven with everything you have. And that scares me, Greg. You're such a gentle, kindly person. I can count the times you've gotten thoroughly angry on one hand from how long I've known you."

"Yeah, I've never been much of a fighter. Still don't feel like one to be honest."

"Exactly. I want you to keep being that loving father even after this. Steven needs you."

"That's a pretty big compliment coming from you, you know."

"Maybe, but I always had Garnet and Amethyst to help with the whole mother thing. I can't imagine doing it by myself."

"I never was…" Greg said as he stood next to her, "I had you three and it's made everything so much easier."

Pearl chuckled at that. "Even with the whole rocket ship incident?"

"Okay, on the whole, it's made things easier."

As they laughed that off, they soon got back to sparring for the next hour or so before the father needed a rest. He may have shed some weight, but he was still a middle-aged man who needed to know when to take a breather. As tied as he was on the trip home, though, he still felt proud of what he was doing to keep his family and home safe. It may not have been the best circumstances, but it was a job he was willing to do.

* * *

While the Crystal Gems were split between business and pleasure in Delmarva, Agent Van Carson was strictly business from his office inside The Hexagon. While the public loved to discuss rumors of secret agents and hidden agendas going on within its walls, the man found some humor in that he recently had come into contact with genuine aliens who have been on Earth long before him, the capital of his country or even the concept of a unified nation.

He was just about to write up a proposal to the higher-ups to suggest a sort of check-up on Beach City. Even with the lack of recent activity, he was curious to learn more about the Crystal Gems and perhaps meet a few more of their members. The promise of a return visit to Fish Stew Pizza also entered his mind, but he kept that part off of his official paperwork.

Once he was finished drafting his proposal, he set it aside and looked through his professional emails to see if anything had come up. Just as he was about to close the window, an urgent message popped up from one of the researchers who uncovered the Crystal Gems. The email was titled "YOU NEED TO SEE THIS!"

Agent Carson did as it said and was met with a series of photographs taken from many of the satellites NASADA had deployed which depicted an unpleasant sight. He saw what appeared to be dozens of sleek spacecrafts of varying sizes and colors moving but one especially caught his attention: an enormously large yellow hand and arm.

"Well, guess I'm making that return even sooner than I thought…" Van said to himself, starting to pack his suitcase in preparation for his trip in a day or two.

* * *

Completely unaware of the impending threat, the Crystal Gems decided to do something they had never done before – a group sparring session in the countryside. Everyone on the team save for Padparadscha and Fluorite were prepared to test their skills against each other. The only rules were to avoid permanent harm in the case of Steven, Greg and Connie and no poofing any gems.

With the stage set, the fourteen fighters were all set and stood in a circle. Amethyst got the event started by super-speeding around everyone to knock them off guard. Everyone either dodged the first attack or simply shrugged it off as much as they could. Since there was no set matchups, everyone grouped off at random.

Greg ended up with Topaz, the fusion at first reluctant to fight the father until he rushed at her fast enough to nearly blow her away. She summoned her pugil stick and soon she and Greg were locked into a battle of blades only stopped when he pulled a blaster with his free hand. Rather than surrender, Topaz split herself into two and then nearly clubbed him with their maces until he pulled himself to safety with his grappling hook.

Adamite was up against Pearl and quickly found her reflexes stretched trying to deal with one opponent who could spontaneously change into potentially twelve. With her vast array or rock projectiles and summoning walls to stop the enemy charges, she found herself disoriented. Not only could any Pearl summon another copy as long as the maximum had not been reached, but a clone could dissipate herself at will to further keep Adamite guessing. Three of the clones managed to get around Adamite's flank, only to be surprised when she covered her back in rocks to stop all their weapons before kicking them away in rapid succession.

Garnet found herself facing off with Lapis. What would have been one of the most one-sided matches in the past ended up being a close fight with both sides constantly gaining the upper hand. Lapis used the water she brought from a nearby lake to show off the wide array of constructs she could make from extra limbs to tentacles to grab Garnet and match her in a fistfight to bringing out buzzsaws and pellets that forced her on the defensive. Even still, Garnet was still the de facto team leader for a reason as her future vision coupled with her massive strength on top of her ability to freeze or evaporate much of the water before it could harm her made Lapis have to constantly rethink her actions.

Rutile was squaring off with Amethyst which made for an explosive demonstration. The purple speedster was literally winding up punches and strikes for miles before nearly flattering her conjoined opponent. What Rutile lacked in brute strength, however, she made up for with creativity. She had been practicing with her new gravity powers for days on end and while she knew the constraints, she also knew how to best utilize them. The most obvious use was pushing Amethyst away, but she found it even better to pull the blitzing gem towards her which made her lose control of her speed and made her a very easy target to hit which made Amethyst reconsider her approach all the more.

Bismuth was surprised to see how well Rhodonite was holding her own. The dreadlocked gem knew she was a heavy hitter that packed a strong punch or swing depending on what shape her hands took but Rhodonite took to Pearl's swordplay lessons very well. The four armed fusion was an entirely different person with a blade in her hand as she dodged and blocked every wild strike with precision before delivering a counter.

Cinnabar was against Peridot and her now complete armor. Just as the techie imagined it, each of the arms and legs were made of several pieces which she could control independently with her metal powers while she used the single breastplate as a platform to hover around. While one gem was still with a never-ending supply of fire, now she up against an opponent with a dozen projectiles that could attack from any side and could outpace by floating away. While it did make Cinnabar impatient, it gave her all the more reason to get creative.

That left Steven and Connie going up against each other with their new abilities for the first time. Steven's multiple weapons and half-gem physiology found an equal in Connie's crystalline body and multitude of swords. Every punch, swing and dodge had them evenly matched with each other and neither one backed down. As intense as their clash, both of them had smiles on their faces. After worrying about each other so many times, they were finally equals in strength and knew that nothing would ever separate them ever again.

And that was all in the first few minutes. The combatants kept switching at random, ganging up on each other and interrupting other fights to simulate real combat as much as possible. All the while Fluorite watched with Padparadscha on her head as the controlled chaos happened. They were both enthralled with the sight but wondered how they could get involved in it themselves. While Fluorite had yet to talk with Garnet about it, she was still curious about a change to her form more suited for combat while Pap was still whittling down the possibilities.

It was only after half an hour that the group finally stopped for a break. While there was some taking notes and offering critiques to each other, it was mostly just to unwind after so much strenuous activity. While their bodies needed the rest, it was also a nice break to talk and pal around as one giant family. The event went so well in fact that the gang decided they would do it again tomorrow.

The rest of the day passed with Connie and Greg leaving the temple while Steven and the gems split up to focus on other projects. With Peridot's armor done, she was considering going back to the Pyramid Temple to find the power source of the reactivated place to potentially upgrade the Sun Incinerator. Bismuth was eager to work on new weapons for some of newcomers, but Rutile's new powers made for a tempting challenge. The elemental trio went off on their own to train some more and Steven was even looking to learn from Topaz on how to use her maces and pugil stick.

As the sun set for the day, Steven went to bed content with how things were going. Much like his father, this was not his ideal. That would be if his ever-growing family could live their days in complete peace but all of this training a step towards making this dream a reality. He hoped that his mother would think so too as he soon closed his eyes and found himself face to face with Rose Quartz once again.

"Good evening, Steven," greeted his mother amicably, "It looks like your making excellent progress."

"Thanks! All this stuff does make my arms pretty sore, though. I don't know how Sugilite uses that flail."

"She's always been very determined… among other things."

"Tell me about it…"

"At the very least, she's much more relaxed than how she used to be. The very first time she was formed?" Rose visibly shuddered at that, making Steven deeply grateful that he was in a dream. He definitely did not need to start sweating bullets.

"So… More meditation?" Steven offered, hoping to change the conversation. Rose nodded and soon she they were both seated apart from each other. She then guided his breathing and began speaking her mantra she had been using since this process started.

"Feel the light within your form. Feel its power resonate within you. This power is yours to use however you wish."

As strange as it felt, Steven did indeed feel this light inside his gem. It was a warm comforting glow almost like his own personal sun but he felt something else. A subtle yet unnerving chill inside him. That power was his but it was too much. He knew this pleasant feeling was from getting only a small fraction of this power. If he tried releasing it all at once, he could feel how it would explode and run rampant.

"Steven, I can feel that," said Rose opening her eyes, "All that fear isn't going to help you."

The boy gasped at that. It still unnerved him how Rose could feel all of his emotions including the unease he felt at that very moment. Thankfully, his mother understood how awkward the situation was and tried to reassure him.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore, Steven. You've grown so much in all this that you can handle it!"

Steven did not say anything, but his downcast eyes and fidgeting fingers were answer enough even if Rose could not feel the crippling doubt emanating from him. She then stood up and wrapped her arms around her son.

"Mom… I'm really tired…" admitted Steven, "And I really like finally getting to spend time with you but-"

"I know. I feel the same way. You're as wonderful a person as I could hope for but you're still stuck in all this chaos. You don't want to fight any more battles but trust me when I say this: what's in that treasure chest you're trying to unlock will end all this fighting."

"Can you at least tell me what it is then?"

"I want to, but you and the others have other things to worry about."

"How bad could it possibly be?!"

Rose looked away at him from that. She felt how much her secrecy was upsetting him and she could only imagine what the others would all say if they were in the same position. While she did not want to reveal everything yet, she decided he deserved to know something.

"What do you know about me shattering Pink, Steven?"

The boy was taken aback by such a blunt question but he still answered. "You, well, walked up to Pink…"

"And where did it happen?"

"Um… In her palanquin, right?"

"Yes, more or less. And that trial never did answer exactly how it happened."

"Hey, yeah, that's right! Bismuth made your sword incapable of shattering gems so how did it happen?"

"I can't say that… But I can give you one piece of advice."

"Yes?!"

"That was not the first time I was in Pink's palanquin."

Steven was only more confused now, causing his mother to wince at the feeling. "But that doesn't make any sense! What, did you sneak in there once on a practice run?!"

"Maybe… I'm terribly sorry, Steven, but it's too much for you to take right now. You need to focus on accessing that key and once you do that, I swear I'll tell everything."

"Really? You promise?"

"Yes, Steven. Now, shall we get back to it?"

Satisfied for now, and more motivated than ever, Steven sat back down and tried to channel the immense power he felt once again. With a new goal in sight, he actually felt a slight change and when felt fully energized he awoke that morning.

A trip downstairs from his bed soon revealed that the Off-Colors had already left in their ship for their morning patrol, the elementals were off on their own again and Garnet and Bismuth were discussing something by the fire pit.

It seemed to be another peaceful day until Topaz's voice came in screaming through Garnet's communicator.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" the captain yelled as the distant sound of explosions could be heard, "Homeworld's here! And this time they aren't kidding around!"

"Topaz, give us the situation," replied Garnet, staying as calm as possible.

"There's fighters coming at us by the dozens! There has to be several warships deploying them!"

"Guys, you need to see this!" Pearl said barging in from the front door. She held out her cellphone and showed a newscast displaying another warship positioned right above Empire City.

"Reports are coming in from many of the planet's biggest cities," read the anchorwoman over the footage as it quickly moved to other locations, "These mysterious ships are rapidly appearing all across the Earth. There is no other way to phrase it: this is a potential alien invasion."

Almost as if one of the Diamonds was listening, the warships suddenly opened several hatches along their bottoms and hundreds of gems poured from each of them right into each metropolis. The Crystal Gems all felt their terror spike as the news station changed their focus again. Cameramen on the ground were now showing gems of every variety crash into streets, cars and building and started to destroy whatever was around them.

"Okay, now it IS an invasion!" said a much more frazzled anchorwoman, "And since it's the end of the world, I QUIT! I've got to get my kids!"

The broadcast stopped as Pearl dropped her phone and the glass cracked. She did not even noticed as she stepped into the house in a trance.

"What do we do?" she asked to no one, "There's millions of them. We can't stop them all…"

"We do our best," assured Garnet. She then tapped her communicator and phoned Amethyst. "Get back here, double time! We have a major emergency!"

"Right!" said Pearl, suddenly reenergized as she summoned eleven clones as fast as possible, "We need to focus on our mission!"

"That's all we can do. Steven, call Connie and your father. We'll need them as well."

"On it!" saluted the boy. As he made his calls, he could not help but feel anxiety bubble up in his stomach. He had a gut feeling that this attack was even bigger than they already knew.

* * *

Far above the Earth observing her invasion force, Yellow Diamond looked down at the blue planet that had been the source of all her failures. Pink Diamond's shattering, countless lost Homeworld soldiers, her pet project The Cluster reduced to a helpless bubble and of course Rose herself. All of it came from this one inconceivably cursed sphere of rock and water. The only solace she had now was that she was finally going to see it destroyed with her own vision spheres.

"My Diamond," reported her pearl, "The ground forces are landing successfully. All of the organics are already scrambling and all unit commanders are now standing by for further instructions."

"Excellent, Pearl. You will stay here and alert me to any sudden changes. That will be all."

As the servant gave the typical salute, Yellow moved from the bridge to the communications hub of her massive ship. As she walked, she thought back to Blue and how she was dead-set on joining Yellow out here in this distant galaxy to finally see the rebellion demolished. It was only on White's direct orders that Blue stay behind that she finally relented.

"_We are on the cusp of a great victory,"_ White explained in the past, _"But we must not make it look so arduous. Rose and her peons are only worth sending one of you to personally deal with them and even then, it's only because you've both failed repeatedly."_

Yellow balked at that, desperately wanting to remind the overblown matriarch that her own agate was sent back crying recently, but she knew better than to speak out of line. The thought of what White what do her then made her grateful to be millions of lightyears away.

Once she made it to the communications room, Yellow put all those thoughts in the back of her mind and dialed up all of the unit commanders. Eight of her personally selected officers were now listening and ready to relay orders to the few million troops that would be invading Earth.

"This mission is the most critical of your lives," she commanded, "And there is no room for failure. The goal is simple: guide your troops in causing as much havoc and destruction as possible to throw the Crystal Gems off of our true cause. Is that clear?"

"YES, MY DIAMOND!" all of them chanted in unison.

"Excellent. Your sacrifice will be honored on Homeworld. That will be all."

**I'm going to call this little arc coming up the rough halfway point of the story but that's a minor detail. The stage is set for Homeworld's biggest attack yet!**

**Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!**


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